Ad Council - Famous Campaigns

Famous Campaigns

The Ad Council claimed the 1943 "We Can Do It!" poster (associated with Rosie the Riveter after 1982) was developed by the WAC as part of its "Women in War Jobs" campaign. In February 2012 during the Ad Council's 70th anniversary celebration, an interactive application designed by Animax's HelpsGood digital agency was linked to the Ad Council's Facebook page. The Facebook app was called "Rosify Yourself" and it allowed viewers to upload images of their faces to be incorporated into the "We Can Do It!" poster, then saved to be shared with friends. Ad Council President and CEO Peggy Conlon posted her own "Rosified" face on Huffington Post in an article about the Ad Council's past 70 years of public service. The staff of the TV show Today posted two "Rosified" images on their website, using the faces of news anchors Matt Lauer and Ann Curry. However, the now-famous poster was actually produced by an internal Westinghouse corporate program as part of a series of posters shown to Westinghouse employees for two weeks then discarded. It was not produced by the Ad Council nor was it used for recruiting women workers.

• "Crying Indian" anti-pollution campaign for Keep America Beautiful. Created in 1973, it won two Clio Awards.

• United Negro College Fund campaign, with its slogan "A mind is a terrible thing to waste". It was created in 1972.

• McGruff campaign, with its slogan "Take a bite out of crime" for the National Crime Prevention Council (in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Justice). It was created in 1978.

• "Friends don't let friends drive drunk" campaign that ran until 2005 for the U.S. Department of Transportation. It helped prevent DUI accidents, and was replaced with the slogan Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving.

• Smokey Bear campaign was created in 1944 to educate Americans about the harm wildfires could cause the war effort, and the danger that the Japanese might deliberately start forest fires by shelling the West Coast of the United States. It was 1947 when the iconic Smokey Bear phrase was finally coined: "Remember...only YOU can prevent forest/wild fires!".

• Vince and Larry, the Crash Test Dummies (1985–1999) a campaign about safety belts.

• "I am an American" (2001-present) a campaign launched in wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack emphasizing the diversity of America. The ad features people of many ethnicities looking in the camera and simply saying, "I am an American."

• "Be cool About Fire Safety" (1996-98), a campaign that teaches kids about fire safety.

• In September 2011, Ad Council and USAID launched the FWD campaign to spread awareness about that year's drought in East Africa. The initiative garnered the participation of celebrities like Uma Thurman, Geena Davis, Josh Hartnett and Chanel Iman, who starred in Public Service Announcements that asked the public to "forward the facts" about the crisis.