What Is The Structure and Examples of Public Service Advertisement?

Public service advertisement is a type of marketing that is circulated in the market without any cost and is for the public welfare. These are designed and broadcast for the societal improvements and for the collective wellbeing of the community as a whole.

Also, these are broadcast by the mass media to let the general public know and inform about social matters. Along with the attraction the public service advertisement always has some specific purpose behind its agenda.  Public service advertisement evolved after the First World War and instead of making money, it is for covering some specific agenda and to resolve some societal problems in a disguised form.

It is to change the behavioral aspect of the community as a whole rather than to make giant sales. The approach that is used by such types of advertisement is to make such action plans, which forces people to think about various societal issues.

These plans are designed in such a way that they inspire people and motivate them to think about those issues that may be environmental, health, or human rights. Ads made by non-profit organizations for the people’s sake. They accommodate the issues that are in the public interest rather than their own, such as the advertisement for the donation for blind people by LBRT to remove the shadow of darkness from their memories and to brighten up their lives.

There are also some other names of Public Service Advertisements as Public information films in the UK, these movies are also named by Public Service Announcements in the US and in Hong Kong too.

Purpose of Public Service Advertisement

Public service advertisements involve the collective interest of a community and are concerned to spread the awareness for a purpose that is broadcast without any charge by the government for the promotion of some state programs or other social agendas.

These kinds of advertisements can be broadcast by using any media source such as print, electronic (television or by sending mail), or billboards. These ads can be made on-air in any form to stimulate the minds of the general public.

Structure of PSA

The public service messages are economical and inexpensive, but the procedures and instructions for such kind of campaigns are the same as for paid media. But the target of such kinds of ads is the whole community, so you have to maintain the reliability of the ad. For launching PSA you have to consider:-

1. For employing such kinds of ads first make a brief analysis of your message to deliver whether it is in the benefits of the overall society. You are not making it to sell any of your product and not for maintaining the name and goodwill of your organization, but rather to educate the people. So the first step is to decide the message in a brief way that you want to communicate for a response.
2. Then decide which advertising mode will be more beneficial in the public interest to deliver the message and with the help of which broadcasting medium it will show significant results. Try to portray the message in an informative way that will enlighten the society in the long run.
3. Now is the time to select your target audience whom you want to approach, whether that is for the awareness of the whole community or for some specific audience that you want to approach on the basis of different segmentation like age, gender race or some other. This target market approach will help you to retain your energy both in form of time and money. Along with being economical, it will also directly hit the minds of the targeted audience efficiently and in an effective way.
4. The 4^th step is to determine the budget. The main question is what budget is allocated by the state/government or non-profit organization for that specific campaign. Being economical and including any influential personality will improve the effectiveness of the message?
5. Determine the tool and technique with the help of which you want to communicate and reach your target audience. Analyze which medium will be the most beneficial and cost-effective.
6. Because of huge competition in media, before starting any PSA campaign meet higher authority, public service advertisement representatives and directors to come to know their attention level for that particular issue so that you may not waste your time and resources. Due to tough competition, not every PSA gets time and space to be broadcasted.  Convince them about the importance of the agenda or choose some other tool to launch.

Public Service Advertising Examples

Instead of being boring kinds of ads, make them interested and eye-catching, so that they can lead the minds of the overall society and can bring a change by educating the society. The area that can be covered under such campaigns include:-

• Voting right
• Quit smoking
• Child abuse
• Donation for hospitals
• Sexual abuse
• Environmental issues
• Go green
• Drive safely

The dilemma with the PSA

A big eye-catching problem with the public service advertisement is usually the broadcasting time and space of other paid commercials. Usually, we observe a contradiction among them and found placed very next to each other and people start mingling them.

At this, it’s become hard for the general public to decide, which aid is beneficial for them. So the PSA’s must be designed in such an effective way that they can approach and click the mind of the general community very easily to make the society free of unhealthy acts.