Ad Council PSAs were always a big deal – maybe not so much the message but the medium. Every few weeks a new PSA campaign packet arrived and dumped unceremoniously into the lap of the station’s production director for review.
The packets were immaculate in design: glossy, tri-folded envelopes sized about 9x11 inches, dolled up in colors and photographs promoting the latest campaign. Sometimes it was cartoon characters or clip art on the outside of the envelope - sometimes it was images from the television version of the PSA promotion. Inside was a treasure trove of information, most of which we did little with.
For example there was always an introductory letter explaining the point and purpose of the project, why the Ad Council got involved, and ways we as broadcasters could expand on the message in the community. Receive a PSA on blood donation? Start a blood drive! Receive a PSA on rape awareness and prevention? Promote the local woman’s shelter! Receive a PSA on algebra? Promote...eh, start...uh.... Do math! Daily!
Within the packet there was a CD tucked away, of course. Depending on the campaign the disc could have as few as five tracks or upwards of a dozen or more. An audio track given over to an inaudible cue-tone was usually first for - as best as I could guess - those stations that needed help with auto-cueing (see Tape loop, keeps on turning round, forever). There were always at least one thirty-second and one sixty-second spot on the disc, sometimes 2-3 of each and sometimes a few additional spots in Spanish. Occasional campaigns featured fifteen-second spots that we didn’t use (though, looking back, I wonder why we didn’t mix-n-match these from various campaigns to make a longer combined spots...).
There was also feedback card that the Ad Council wanted stations to complete and send back. Did your station run this campaign? If so, for how long? Which spots? And so on. I didn’t know what my predecessors thought on such things but in my role as production director I always made an effort to return the cards. Part of me thought it was a surefire way to get on the mailing lists so that additional PSAs would arrive. Why? To help with rotation. There was nothing worse than having 20 to 25 announcements in rotation for so long that staff could recite them from memory.
But why would we be short on PSAs, you ask? Some campaigns included, as part of the letter and feedback card, the oft-overlooked termination date. Spots could be time sensitive – meaning that if we were going to run the spots about head lice, we could do so up until September 30. We weren’t in trouble or out of compliance if we ran something about head lice on October 3 but ads that included dates or mentioned calendar-specific information could quickly become outdated. There was nothing like having a smooth-talking announcer boasting about Arbor Day in the weeks leading up to Halloween.
During my stint in the production department I ditched the envelope and letters, sent back the card with little concern to how factual my feedback was, and kept the discs in two stacks. One pile was for those spots that were time-sensitive - once those had run their course I could toss 'em (usually onto the wall – see It's like you're always stuck in second gear). As far as the other pile was concerned, I kept them indefinitely to rotate out overplayed spots and interject some variety. There was nothing worse than having a silly-sounding PSA being played each shift.
Scratch that – the only thing worse than that was having a silly-sounding PSA parodied as a station promo (see You know I’d like to believe this nervousness will pass).
Take for instance the PSA about algebra. How does one compose a public service campaign about mathematics? You get a bunch of people to shout “algebra” over and over throughout the ad! One solitary male voice began chanting “Al-ge-bra. Al-ge-bra!” Soon other voices joined in, sharing an unabashed dedication to mathematical equations, until the end of the spot sounded like the final seconds of a football game. Enticing us to get involved with the math and sciences in school to learn just how cool algebra could be was an announcer, reading his lines over the chorus of math fans in a voice that sounded way too cool for algebra.
I forget how we ridiculed this one – maybe shouting “Blind Mel-on” or “Nirh-vah-nuh” over and over? I dunno. Also I do not recall - for the record - any PSA on the subject of head lice.
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Abstrakt Algebra
(Unknown)
Abstrakt Algebra
From the album Abstrakt Algebra
1995
In a place called the Ozone
The two rooms divided, I was never there
Are the vectors depending?
Release the suite, meet the hyperplane
Longitude and latitude, may the two never meet
Make a circle complete with a line square and neat
A bizzare way of cancellation, integrated transmutation
The missing equation, the sixth eklination
Abstrkt Algebra
Abstrakt Algebra
Sictor virus protection
The logical factor, the basis of greek
Plus and minus, they equal
Two plus two, but sometimes they freak
Digital and analog, a note inside the captain’s log
Arithmetic, mathematic, same old form but assymetric
Elemental misery, transcendental elegy
A maze of the mind and the code I can’t find
Abstrakt Algebra
Abstrakt Algebra
Enter password rejection
Synopsis infection, carbonized seed
Biological breakdown
I breathe in the vacuum like a fish in the sea
Digital and analog, a note inside the captain’s log
Arithmetic, mathematic, same old form but assymetric
Elemental misery, transcendental elegy
A maze of the mind and the code I can’t find
Abstrakt Algebra
Abstrakt Algebra
Abstrakt Algebra
Abstrakt Algebra
Abstrakt Algebra
Abstrakt Algebra
Abstrakt Algebra
Abstrakt Algebra
