• by Masha Geller , October 30, 2001

The Advertising Council today announced the completion of a communications strategy created to guide the development of public service announcements in response to the events of September 11th.

According to the strategy, the Ad Council's newly-formed Coalition Against Terrorism (formerly known as the Crisis Response Team) will begin to create messages that will "inform, involve and inspire all Americans to participate in activities that will strengthen our nation and help win the war on terrorism."

The organization, founded in 1942 as the War Advertising Council after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, last year oversaw the donation of $1.55 billion in commercial time and advertising space for pro bono campaigns.

But in recent weeks The Ad Council has been harshly criticized for being too slow in organizing a uniform Madison Avenue response, producing fragmented one-shot campaigns rather than a cohesive effort, and eagerly taking orders from the White House rather than developing their own strategy.

The Council says that is about to change. Michael Sennott, Communications Strategy Chairman, said the Council will produce "a range of timely messages that will inform, involve and inspire Americans to take actions to help fight the war on terrorism.

"While each of the individual messages will focus on distinct topics and will be developed pro bono by different creative teams, we will ensure that each execution shares the common strategic thrust we have identified."

In keeping with Ad Council policy, all campaign sponsors must be either a government agency or a 501c3. The Ad Council will not produce campaign messages that are partisan in nature, are sponsored by advocacy groups, advocate a policy that has not been established, or motivate commercial gain.