• July 9, 2002

Despite a challenging economy, public service advertising (PSA) campaigns produced by the Ad Council received more than $1.58 billion in donated media time and space during 2001 - the largest support from the media in the Ad Council's sixty-year history. The media's support of the Ad Council's PSA campaigns increased from the previous year by 2%, and marks the fourth straight year that Ad Council PSA campaigns received in excess of $1 billion in donated media. This total ranked the Ad Council equivalent to the third largest advertiser in the United States in 2001.

Drunk Driving Prevention ($88 million), Earth Share ($78 million) and the United Negro College Fund ($65 million) remained among the top ten supported campaigns in donated media for the second consecutive year. The Drunk Driving Prevention campaign, ranked at #8 in 2000, received the largest support from the media in 2001. Other top campaigns across all forms of media included Learning Disabilities, Afterschool Alliance, Community Drug Prevention, ESGR, Operation Graduation, Childhood Asthma, and El Valor.