Development Status of Public Service Advertisement

Public service advertisement ≠ Public service advertisement

China public service advertisement has a history of nearly 20 years. 1998 during the summer flood fighting and emergency rescue, the mass media broadcast public service advertisements with the theme of "flood fighting and disaster relief". In the spring of 2003, SARS broke out, and public service advertising once again became one of the hot spots that the advertising industry, media and audience paid attention to in the war against SARS. According to Guo Zhenxi, director of the advertising department of CCTV, CCTV leaders attach great importance to the planning of this public service advertisement as a special battlefield against SARS. To this end, CCTV has invested more than 3 million yuan in production fees, and the total value of the time slots used to broadcast these public service advertisements exceeds 200 million yuan. It is unique in the history of CCTV public service advertisements to launch so many public service advertisements around a theme in a short time and broadcast them at such a high frequency.

Because there is no non-profit public service advertising organization in China at present, the early public service advertisements were spontaneously organized and released by the media. Like commercial advertisements, the production and broadcasting of public service advertisements require a lot of manpower and financial resources. With the development of economy, the cost of making and broadcasting public service advertisements is increasing year by year. For TV stations, it is not a small investment to take out advertising time to broadcast public service advertisements, and it is not enough to invest more manpower and funds to make public service advertisements. At the beginning of 1994, in order to attract enterprise investment and solve the contradiction of insufficient production funds, CCTV adopted the method of typing the enterprise name at the end of the program. As a profit-making organization, it is understandable for enterprises to pursue economic benefits. However, indicating the name of the enterprise or brand in the public service advertisement makes the advertisement more or less commercial. Therefore, strictly speaking, such advertisements should belong to institutional advertisements. Institutional advertising, that is, corporate advertising, is different from commercial advertising for enterprises. It sells not the products or services of enterprises, but some ideas. Enterprises can improve their corporate image and increase their reputation by making and publishing public service altruistic advertisements, which is actually a part of the whole corporate public relations and can be regarded as a clever means of corporate public relations.

The development of public service advertisements in China is completely different from that in the United States and Japan. In the United States, it was once a legal obligation for radio and television media to broadcast public advertisements. According to the Federal Broadcasting Law 1927, in return for using the electromagnetic spectrum, the broadcasting industry is obliged to serve "public interests, convenience and demand". Because the relevant legal provisions do not clearly explain this kind of service, radio stations broadcast free community service advertisements in order to prove that they provide these services when renewing their licenses. This has formed tripartite cooperation: non-profit organizations and government agencies obtain production funds through advertising boards and carry out various social education; Advertising professionals provide free time and creativity according to the requirements of the advertising Committee; The media provides free time and space to fulfill its obligation of "public service". Japanese public advertising agencies are the main body of Japanese public advertising, and their member units include enterprises, advertising companies and the media. Public service advertising agencies put forward a number of public service advertising activities every year, which are planned and created by member advertising companies. After the expert review, it will be produced free of charge by its member units (advertising companies or production companies) and released free of charge by its member media.

Since 1980s, the American Advertising Commission is no longer the only public advertising implementer. Founded in 1987, the American anti-drug cooperation organization began to independently produce and publish public service anti-drug advertisements on TV media. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the organization's anti-drug advertisements were widely broadcast on American TV media, and achieved quite successful publicity results. At one time, 92% of American teenagers reported seeing the organization's anti-drug TV advertisements. In the early 1990s, more and more organizations participated in the production and distribution of public advertisements, including paid advertisements. From 65438 to 0998, the National Drug Control Policy Agency (ONDCP) allocated $65438 billion to buy media time for anti-drug publicity. This unprecedented grant is believed to be based on the government's belief that advertising can play an important role in helping young people change their attitudes and behaviors. Due to the limited time and space of media advertising, the "prosperity" of public service advertising has brought fierce competition. According to the survey of Kaiser Family Foundation 200 1, the average time spent by American TV media on free public service advertisements is about 15 seconds per hour, which is less than 0.5%, while the average time spent by ONDCP and other institutions on paid public service advertisements is 9 seconds per hour, which is equivalent to two thirds of that of free public service advertisements. Faced with this new situation, someone asked: Does the mass media provide enough free time and space for public service advertisements? Is the paid public service advertisement that brings some benefits to enterprises still a public service advertisement in the original sense?

There are also some paid public service advertisements in Japan, which are produced by government agencies and some enterprises to buy media time and space to publish. The government's public service advertisement is a part of the government's public relations and is paid by the government budget. This part of the government's budget, except for the production of publicity materials, has little time and space to buy in the media, that is to say, the media is not the main channel of government public relations. Although the advertisements made by enterprises that do not directly promote the products and services of enterprises are all signed by enterprises, Nakajima Wenxin, director of Tokyo Bureau of Japanese public advertising agency, believes that these advertisements are concerned with the same problem of the whole society, not the direct interests of enterprises, so they can also be regarded as public advertisements. Of course, these advertisements planned and produced by enterprises and published in the media are not exactly the same as those of public advertising agencies.

Therefore, if we call altruistic advertisements produced and released by enterprises out of social responsibility as public service advertisements, which do not directly promote their products and services, but pay attention to social problems, then such advertisements are different from those produced and released by non-profit organizations. In other words, public service advertisement cannot be equated with public service advertisement, but at most it is a part of public service advertisement or a special form of public service advertisement.

The road to the development of public service advertising with China characteristics

Through this special form of advertising, we can not only see the social problems faced by a country, but also see the political and economic system of this country, including the media system. For example, in the United States, advertisements made by political parties in the media are regarded as political advertisements rather than public service advertisements, because such advertisements represent the interests of one party rather than topics of common concern to the public. In Japan, the members of public advertising agencies cover almost all folk media and folk broadcasting except enterprises and advertising companies, while NHK, as a public broadcasting and television agency, is not a member of public advertising agencies and does not broadcast public advertisements. Similarly, the public service advertisements in China are also the reflection of the political and economic system, including the media system. For a long time after 1949, as a public institution, although there were advertisements, it was not for profit. The media pays attention to social issues such as social morality and environmental protection not through advertisements, but through political propaganda.

If 1986 "Save Water" by Guiyang TV Station and "Make Public Notice" by CCTV the following year are regarded as the origins of public service advertisements in China, then we can divide the development of public service advertisements in China into two stages. The first stage is the spontaneous stage of the media, and the second stage is the enterprise intervention stage of 65438-0994. In fact, the early public service advertisement is one of the forms of media publicity to the audience, which has played a role in standardizing social behavior, improving social atmosphere and creating a good social environment. Because there is no commercial advertising operation mode, it can't be regarded as an advertisement strictly, and certainly it can't be called a public service advertisement. With the development of economy, especially the development of socialist market economy and the deepening of media reform, public service advertisements creatively planned and produced according to the commercial advertisement operation model have developed. At present, there is no non-profit non-governmental organization specializing in public service advertising in China. The main operation mode of public service advertising is initiated by the government (which can be administrative instruction or universal promotion) and produced and broadcast by the media; Or auction it after being produced by the media, and publish it in the name of the enterprise with the right of signature; It can also be enterprise production, media purchase and time-space release. Advertisements sponsored by enterprises are generally signed by enterprises and are more or less profitable, so strictly speaking, they are not public service advertisements. However, because the main purpose of corporate sponsorship advertising is not profit, but out of a social responsibility, its public welfare greatly exceeds profitability, so it is appropriate to call it "public service advertising". This mode of operation is also in line with the reality of China.

However, while affirming the development of public service advertisements in line with China's national conditions in recent 20 years, we can't help but see the existing problems. First of all, the lack of a good operating mechanism is one of the main problems that affect the further development of public service advertisements. We haven't established a fully donated public service advertising operation mechanism, and there is no profit purpose. Therefore, the planning and production of public service advertisements depends to a great extent on the support of the government and the short-term investment of advertising companies and some enterprises, and the release of public service advertisements in the media also depends on administrative means.

Secondly, large-scale publicity in coordination with the central work of the Party and the government is the "strong point" of China media, which was very effective in previous campaigns and also brought into public service advertisements. Looking back, the public service advertisements that have left a deep impression on the public in recent years are all major events of national concern, such as fighting floods and SARS, or key projects that the government has grasped, such as re-employment of laid-off workers and Project Hope. Those enterprises that want to establish public relations image through public service advertisements are therefore happy to invest in these advertisements. On the contrary, for those advertising topics that need long-term publicity and have a subtle influence on the public, such as environmental protection and social morality, it seems that investment is insufficient and publicity is weak.

Third, the overall creativity of public service advertisements is not satisfactory. Although there are many excellent public service advertisements in some award-winning works of advertising festivals and competitions, most of these works have not been seen by the public through mass media, except for some published in advertising professional journals, and they are kept in boudoir without knowing it. This is a waste of resources.

In order to solve these problems, we can learn from foreign practices, establish non-profit non-governmental organizations, form a benign fund guarantee system through social donation financing channels, make public service advertisements in a strict sense, and make maximum use of limited resources through organization and coordination. Secondly, continue to run public service advertisements suitable for China's current economic development level and social public awareness. In recent years, although some enterprises have obvious utilitarian purposes when investing in public service advertisements, after all, the social benefits outweigh the economic benefits, which also reflects the public welfare consciousness and social responsibility of enterprises, is the performance of social progress, and objectively forms a "win-win" result.

In western developed countries, participation in public service advertisements is regarded as a sign of media maturity, corporate social responsibility and social progress. With the advancement of the construction of three civilizations in China, public service advertisements have great room for development. How to learn from foreign advanced experience and develop public service advertisements with China characteristics is a subject worthy of in-depth study by Chinese media, enterprises and advertising circles.