Chicago DUI lawyer comments on the big DUI PSA ad campaign

You would think with all of the bombarded messages we get about drunk driving, no one would ever do it. Is it time to try a different route?

July 1, New York, New York

As the effects of the financial crisis hit the marketplace last year, the report found, media companies still donated commercial time, ad space and other support for pro bono campaigns worth more than $1.83 billion.

The total — higher than 2007 by about $320,000 — comprised television and radio commercials, outdoor ads, print ads, ads online, public relations, ads in yellow pages directories and ads in alternative media. By comparison the total for 2007 was down 3.2 percent from 2006, and the total for 2006 was up 1.5 percent from 2005.

The total for 2008 was noteworthy, according to the council, because it came during a year when ad space and commercial time were crowded with an estimated $2.5 billion in political pitches, $1.5 billion in Olympic-related spending and $1.2 billion for the efforts by the television industry to educate viewers about the switch to digital TV.

Those initiatives “sucked up a lot of inventory that otherwise would have been available” for public service ads, said Peggy Conlon, president and chief executive at the council in New York.

Of the 10 campaigns that received the most support from media companies last year, measured by dollar volume, three have resonance in a recession.

One is the campaign to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, which the council took up on behalf of an organization named NeighborWorks America. It received $72.9 million in donated space and time, according to the report, good for third place behind a campaign for parental controls for TV sets, with $116.7 million, and a campaign to prevent drunken driving, with $88.7 million.

$88.7 million dollars spent on a campaign to prevent drunk driving. That is an awful lot of taxi's that could be used for rides home. Then again, does everyone just stop watching TV when commercials are on? Maybe there's a better use for that money we don't want the media executives to wake up with a hangover.