The Ad Council

The Ad Council is a neat and significant organization. They specialize in commercials that are geared toward a certain cause that needs to be seriously looked at in today's society. Three particular events or commercials that they have done were Pollution Prevention, Drunk Driving Prevention, and "I am An American". All these articles were really good and I learned a lot from them. Pollution Prevention used the icon "The Crying Indian" to help get the point across on how pollution is harming the environment. This commercial helped established Earth Day in 1971 and the Environmental Protection Agency and is described as one of the top 50 commercials of all time. This cause reduced litter by 88 percent in 300 different communities in 38 states and even in several countries. Drunk Driving Prevention I thought was probably the most influential one of them all. The tagline "Friends don’t let friends drive drunk" is one of the most memorable things from this campaign and 90 percent of adults in America know this slogan. I know from personal experience that a lot of my friends say this, some jokingly; moreover, it’s the fact that we know if you’re drunk, don’t drive period, call a sober driver or designated driver that is the common term used today. This word was started from this campaign and used on the college level with fraternities and sororities so an impact is being made. The proportion traffic fatalities caused by alcohol related crashes has dropped from 60 percent in 1982 to about 45 percent today. Its amazing what campaigns can do to change something that once was socially accepted to something that’s looked down upon; now and days the penalties are really stringent and to get a DUI, kiss your life good bye. The particular article "I am an American" basically explains itself. This campaign was made right after 9/11 during the most troubling time in history. The commercials itself were just amazing, it made you feel happy to be an American and it was easing to watch something positive on TV. Although 9/11 was a tragic event, I thought it brought our country together after this as in more loving towards others and more patriotism was uprooted from this. It seemed like no one was that active as being proud to be an American until this tragic incident happened. Using the Latin word E pluribus Unum meaning "Out of many" was a powerful way to end the commercials. Basically, it was saying that we are all Americans so we should come together as Americans during this troubling time. All in all the ad council does a great job with the campaigns they put on.