Quo vadis, PSA?

The first article I recommended to read was about the origins of pro-social campaigns; the second one is about their future. This contribution by Christopher Byrne is called “AIDS Awareness: Smokey and the Cell Video – the Personal Public Service Announcement” and includes a transcript of a blog posting from Scott Shamp, Director of the University of Georgia New Media Institute, which I highly recommend to read until the end.

Your first question might be ‘What does the PSA mean?’ – the answer is Public Service Announcement, defined by the Federal Communications Commission as “any announcement for which no charge is made and which promotes programs, activities, or services of governments or non-profit organizations.”

The article is about a project called “AIDS Personal PSA 2008,” which was realized under the auspices of the New Media Institute by the University of Georgia. Its aim was to show daily life situations of people infected with HIV and to encourage young people to get tested on the virus.

What is the actual breakthrough? It is the first campaign in the world dealing with “personal PSAs,” labeled like this because they are transmitted and spread via the most personal devices – the mobile phones. Within the scope of this campaign, the personal pro-social spots were downloaded and spread free of charge, thanks to cooperation and support from the cell phone companies Verizon and Nokia. To keep the pushing of future PPSAs free of costs is the goal of the project organizers.

There is a couple of reasons for such development. Firstly, TV is not our only screen anymore – now we can watch our favorite series or movies on the Internet, on our iPods or on the new generation mobile phones, often avoiding commercials so typical for TV. Nowadays we can watch anytime and anywhere, due to technical advances and a small size of these modern gadgets. Secondly, PPSAs (Personal PSAs) offer new possibilities for more precise and effective targeting of the audience, making it a progressive and promising future tool of advertisers. In words of Mr Shamp, “Think of the power of these new PPSAs to change people, to make lives better, to make communities stronger.”

You can find more information about the project and the edited PPSAs videos here

For the whole article, see:
AIDS Awareness: Smokey and the Cell Video – the Personal Public Service Announcement

To watch the AIDS PPSA Project 2008: Moments – a video overview click here

List of References:

Byron, Ch. (2007). AIDS Awareness: Smokey and the Cell Video – the Personal Public Service Announcement. NowPublic – Crowd Powered Media. Retrieved December 25, 2008 from http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/aids-awareness-smokey-and-cell-video-personal-public-service-announcement-0

Moments – a video overview. (2008). The AIDS PPSA Project 2008. Retrieved January 8, 2009 from http://www.mynmi.net/aids_ppsa/moments/