Ad Council Takes Aim At Bullies

Launches PSA campaign with help of advertisers, media outlets

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/19/2012 3:04:01 PM

The Ad Council has launched PSA campaign to help parents and kids talk about preventing bullying.

"While parents throughout the U.S. are concerned about this issue, research shows they're more reactive than proactive when it comes to talking to their children about it," said the Council. "Additionally, while three-quarters of teens say the best thing that others can do to help stop bullying is to intervene, only 16% report their peers "often or always" intervene and half of teens say they "rarely or never" see anyone do so

The Council, which matches up donated creative and ad time/space contributions to combat a litany of problems from drunk driving to fire safety, developed the campaign in partnership with AOL, Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, DHHS and others.

They were created pro bono by DDB New York and filmmaker Lee Hirsch. Carat is helping with the placement strategy.

According to an Ad Council spokesperson, in addition to a donated spot on The Today Show Thursday and social media commitments from AOL and Facebook, it has commitments from Clear Channel for radio spots. On the TV side, Univision, CNN, Cartoon Network and the MLB Network are all carrying spots they helped create using talent from their nets, CNN's Anderson Cooper, for example, is featured in one PSA. Broadcasters are expected to spread the word as well. 

The PSA's direct parents to stopbullying.gov and a Facebook page, created with CNN and Cartoon Network.