• by Sarah Mahoney , October 5, 2010

California's struggling economy has cut into donations to the Salvation Army, so it's launched a new campaign to increase awareness and boost in-kind donations to its thrift stores.

TV spots show cast-off items in a new way: A red t-shirt rolls up into a heart, for example, with the tagline, "One man's old shirt is another man's new start." In another, an old desk chair casts a heart-shaped shadow: "One person's chair is another's new outlook." Print ads are headlines, "It's easy to do good."

Aimed at middle-class families who might feel unable to make a cash donation, ads stress how easy it is to give, asking viewers to call 1-800-SA-TRUCK, or visit satruck.org.

"Donations are down this year, and we wanted to remind people that's it's easy to give your old things away," Courtney Walker, group account director at PanCom International, the Salvation Army's Western Territory ad agency, tells Marketing Daily. "And our research found that people were unaware that they could call and schedule a pickup, so we wanted to emphasize the truck—if you have a couch or old furniture, that can make all the difference."