Public Service Announcement

What is a public service announcement? Let us look at an example first. CNN aired an advertisement: two young children were playing intimately together, with the words Israeli and Palestinian written underneath. This was followed by several groups of shots of Bosnian and Serbian children, Iraqi and Kuwaiti children playing intimately, and then subtitles were printed. : Stop the war, for the children. Signed: United Nations Children's Fund - UNICEF. This is a typical public service announcement. This kind of advertising does not create economic benefits through paid commercial publicity, but "free promotion" of certain consciousness and ideas, conveying certain civilized and moral concepts to the public, in order to improve their civilization and obtain good social benefits. , which is a public service announcement. Public service announcements are intended to create an atmosphere and momentum, that is, a certain social atmosphere. In a sense, the level of public service advertisements in a city, a region, or a country is an important symbol of the cultural and moral standards and social atmosphere of the people in this city, region, or country. Public service advertisements have two main functions. One is to spread social civilization and promote moral trends; the other is for enterprises to establish their own good social image and consolidate their brand image through it.

1. Categories of public service advertisements

According to the identity of the publisher, public service advertisements can be divided into three types. The first is public service advertisements produced and released directly by the media, such as TV stations, newspapers, etc. For example, CCTV often publishes such advertisements. This is the political and social responsibility of the media. The second type is public service announcements issued by specialized social agencies. For example, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the International Wildlife Conservation Organization have respectively issued "protect cultural heritage", "children have the right to education", "do not discriminate against AIDS patients", and "protect rare animals" Such public service advertisements are mostly related to the functions of the publisher. The third type is public service advertisements released and produced by enterprises. For example, Boeing Company has released public service advertisements such as "Bringing People Together" and Ericsson has released "Care Comes from Communication". The company not only does good deeds, but also establishes its own social welfare image.

From the perspective of advertising carriers, it can be divided into media public service advertisements, such as advertisements on TV and newspapers, and outdoor advertisements, such as public service advertisements on stations, buses, and street signs.

Based on the themes of public service advertisements, they can be divided into political policy topics, such as 20 years of reform and opening up, welcoming the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, rejuvenating the country through science and technology, promoting democracy and legal system, poverty alleviation, etc.; holiday categories, such as " May Day", "Teacher's Day", "Double Ninth Festival", "Arbor Day", etc.; social civilization categories, such as protecting the environment, saving water, caring for the disabled, etc.; health categories, such as anti-smoking, national fitness, eye care, etc.; Social focus categories, such as layoffs, anti-counterfeiting, anti-pornography and anti-illegal activities, anti-drugs, Project Hope, etc.

2. The development and current situation of public service advertisements at home and abroad

Public service advertisements originated earlier abroad. Nowadays, in developed countries in Europe and the United States, public service announcements have become quite popular, especially television public service announcements. Television public service announcements were first seen on major national television networks in the United States and France, such as ABC in the United States and CANAL in France. Later, some multinational companies and institutions in Europe and the United States also joined in the production and release of public service announcements. Most of the public service announcements broadcast on European and American TV stations are released by some international or national organizations and institutions. For example, the International Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the National Health Association, and the United Nations Children's Fund have released a large number of public service announcements. Some large companies spare no effort to produce public service announcements while releasing commercial advertisements. Such as IBM's "One World", General Electric's "Light Up Life", etc. These large companies are keenly aware that although public service advertisements do not directly promote their own products, they can highlight the company's sense of social responsibility and love, establish a good and noble social image of the company, and strengthen the company's trademark impression through frequent broadcasts, so In fact, it also plays a role in promoting itself. These companies perfectly combine commercial advertising and public service advertising, and the two-pronged approach firmly occupies the leading position in the world's advertising, which can be said to be a good harvest both materially and spiritually.

In our country, public service advertising has also developed significantly in recent years.

Public service advertisements on buses, roads, display screens, and public places in major cities have become very common. Public service announcements in the media have also increased rapidly. Especially on television, CCTV's "Advertise It Broadly" column pioneered public service advertisements on Chinese television. Now, almost all TV stations above the municipal level have public service announcement time.

3. Principles and characteristics of the creation of public service advertisements

The creation of public service advertisements must not only follow the creation principles of general advertisements, but also reflect the individual principles of public service advertisements. The individual principles for the creation of public service advertisements include the following aspects.

1. Ideological and political principles

Public service advertisements sell ideas. Concepts belong to the superstructure, and ideological and political principles are the first priority.

Ideological and political principles also require public service advertisements to be of elegant taste. That is to say, we must unify ideological and artistic qualities, and integrate ideological qualities into artistry. At the 43rd Cannes International Advertising Festival, there was an anti-racial discrimination advertisement. The picture showed four brains. The first three were the same size, and the last one was significantly smaller than the first three. The text description was African, European, Asian and Racist’s (all marked under the corresponding brain). Let the audience think and experience for themselves. The unique creativity is amazing.

2. Advocacy principle

Public service advertisements that promote concepts or codes of conduct to the public should be conducted in an advocacy manner. Communication between the transmitter and the receiver should be equal. It is absolutely unacceptable to act like an educator, condescending, and speak in a lecturing tone.

This is not to say that public service announcements cannot speak out about bad behavior and unhealthy trends. The advocacy principle of public service advertising requires us to communicate with the public on an equal footing by focusing on positive publicity, supplemented by reminders and exhortations. There are many successful examples in this regard, such as "Cherish your summer vacation", "Your family looks forward to your safe return", "Protect water resources", "Children, don't join the ranks of smokers", etc.

3. Emotional principle

Human attitude is rooted in emotion. If the concept can be attached to the easier-to-perceive emotional component, it will arouse people's excitement, not to mention that Eastern peoples attach great importance to emotions.

For example, an advertisement broadcast by Fujian TV Station "Both sides of the Taiwan Strait are in love, and their flesh and blood look forward to reunion." It successfully conveyed the concept of the reunification of the motherland to emotion.

4. The creativity of TV public service advertisements

How to make the public feel interesting, curious, relaxed and watchable, so as to skillfully make the public accept it from the heart, is the primary task of the producer . For example, "Save electricity and turn off the lights when you go out." Let's take a look at how Russian advertisers do it. In a set of animated scenes, a couple had a violent quarrel. The husband couldn't bear it, so he packed up his clothes and ran away from home. The wife woke up from a dream, holding several children and crying bitterly. After a while, the door suddenly opened and her husband appeared at the door. My husband is back! The wife and children were about to break down in tears and laugh, but the husband reached out his hand, snapped off the switch on the wall, slammed the door and walked away. The room suddenly became dark. Subtitles appear: Save electricity, lights go out when people leave. This is creativity, an ending that is beyond everyone’s expectations.

Compared with commercial advertisements, public service advertisements are relatively free in creativity, because commercial advertisements must be restricted by advertisers. Public service advertisements, on the other hand, only need to comply with the country's ethics and laws, so they are less restricted and give creators more room to play.

A good TV public service advertisement creativity should generally have the following characteristics:

1. Profoundly reveal the essence and thoroughly analyze the truth

CCTV once broadcast a A public service announcement warning that smoking is harmful to life.

In the TV screen, the two characters "smoking" are displayed in a prominent position. On the background is a combined picture that smoking is dangerous to health. The "fire" in half of the word "smoke" ignites a cigarette and burns blazingly. A series of shocking figures:

The number of deaths caused by smoking in the world every year reaches 3 million, accounting for 5% of the annual death toll; one person dies every 10 seconds in the world due to smoking;

The average smoking rate among men over 15 years old in our country is 61;...

The deep voice-over further revealed the essence:

Smoking is the second most important disease after war and hunger. and the greatest threat to human existence after the plague.

A set of astonishing figures and a deafening warning essentially revealed the dangers of smoking, making people frightened after seeing it, and the benefits and risks were self-evident, thus achieving a good publicity and warning effect.

A good advertising creativity is the crystallization of wisdom, which will double the warning and education effect of public service advertisements.

2. Highly artistic concentration, clever and implicit metaphors

TV public service advertisements must be compact and short, and cannot be sloppy. However, the publicity effect is required to be short but concise, and be sincere and full of emotion. This requires highly condensing what is told to people into a dazzling moment.

An award-winning public service advertisement from Shandong Province in 1997 is an unforgettable masterpiece. At the beginning of the advertisement, an apple blossom fills the screen. After the flowers wither, the green leafy branch bears an apple, which grows bigger and bigger, becoming a huge and delicious apple. The fruit disappeared, and two small apples were born. The fruit disappeared again, and four small apples were born... After several times of hiding, the fruit-laden branches were full of thin and defective fruits. At this time, the overwhelmed apple branch was crushed with a "click" - the scene was frozen. A profound voice-over came from the distance: Human beings must also control themselves.

The concentration of art and the ingenuity of metaphors can shorten the time and length tenfold, and increase the appeal and persuasiveness a hundredfold.

3. Moderate exaggeration and insightful warning

Good advertising creativity is inseparable from subtle metaphors, let alone moderate and accurate exaggeration. The public service advertisement on cherishing water resources broadcast by CCTV bluntly told the people that "China is a country with scarce water resources", and then warned people in an exaggerated manner: If water resources are destroyed unscrupulously, the last drop of water we will see will be , will be your own tears! On the screen, a drop of crystal tears dripped from a beautiful big eye. It is shocking and frightening to hear the words. It is really a warning and the finishing touch.

I often watch public service advertisements on TV, and I always feel that the creative styles are different and each has its own merits: some are straightforward and enlighten the mind; some are shockingly clever and criticize current ills; some are worded to warn. Thought-provoking; and the finishing touch that makes people enlightened... In short, a creative TV public service advertisement will always fully reflect its creative effect through audio, video, subtitles, audio and other TV means, in order to produce the best society Benefits, achieving the purpose of warning and enlightenment. Watching creative public service advertisements is an artistic enjoyment.

Public service advertising is not just a government action, it requires the participation and support of the whole society. If more entrepreneurs can realize this and actively participate, my country's future public service advertising business will surely have a broader world and better prospects