• by Larissa Faw , March 31, 2021

The National Center of Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is debuting its new PSA that looks more like a music video than a direct call-to-action to encourage  participation in the fight to recover missing children.

The creative, developed with Jason Peterson’s The Times, takes place in Gary, Indiana, a former booming manufacturing hub that has largely become desolate in recent times. Gary is also home to a high-profile missing person’s case that remains unsolved.

The black and white PSA features individual children roaming parts of a town alone at night, ending with the tagline “imagine your world without the moons and the stars,” before ultimately encouraging audiences to help find missing children. An auto-tuned hip-hop influenced song created by At The Studio plays in the background.

Alexis Lovett, producer at The Times, was formerly head of marketing at M/H VCCP (now MUH-TAY-ZIK / HOF-FER) and was part of the Runaway Train 25 project with NCMEC in May 2019. She reached out to NCMEC when she joined The Times.

"NCMEC, and similar cause-related organizations, deserve the best, most impactful work the industry can offer,” says Peterson. “Unfortunately, agencies aren't built to address the current creative revolution and brands are missing out on great work.”   

The PSA started running on social media this week, and will also include a broadcast component, though the official launch date is still too be determined.