In an effort to inform children and their families about the importance of food safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Ad Council are joining 20th Century Fox to launch a series of public service advertisements (PSAs) featuring footage from the upcoming film Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Road Chip.
An estimated 1 in 6 (48 million) Americans get sick from foodborne illness each year, resulting in roughly 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children are among the most vulnerable to food poisoning because their immune systems are still developing, so parents and caregivers need to take extra precautions when preparing food for children under five.
The new PSAs, featuring everyone’s favorite Chipmunks – Alvin, Simon, and Theodore – highlight the four food safety steps consumers can use to prevent foodborne illness. The Chipmunks’ antics and hilarious situations in which they find themselves provide a perfect platform to illustrate these four steps: Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill. The PSAs help explain actions anyone can take to safely prepare their food, using the Chipmunks as the tool to bring fun and relevancy to a serious topic. The partnership includes TV, radio, out-of-home and web advertising, and parents and children can also find kid-friendly activities that further reinforce the food safety steps by visiting FoodSafety.gov.
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7652251-ad-council-food-safety/
As part of National Teen Driver Safety Week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Ad Council announced today their first national public service campaign designed to prevent underage drinking and driving. Following the success of iconic campaigns including “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk” and “Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving,” the new public service ads (PSAs) were unveiled this morning by Mark Rosekind, Administrator for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), at the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) Teen Safe Driving Summit in Washington, DC.
“One teenage death from drinking and driving is too many,” said NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind. “Our goal with this campaign is to raise awareness among teenagers that drinking and driving is one of the worst mistakes they can ever make, with deadly consequences that can’t be undone.”
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teens in America, and almost half of teens killed in crashes are the drivers themselves. Despite a minimum legal drinking age of 21 in all 50 states, almost one-quarter of young drivers involved in fatal traffic crashes had alcohol in their systems according to data from NHTSA.
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7662551-ad-council-ultimate-party-foul/
Today, the award-winning Adoption from Foster Care campaign from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AdoptUSKids and the Ad Council unveiled a new series of public service advertisements (PSAs) that aim to encourage the adoption of older youth from foster care.
Of the 415,000 children in the U.S. foster care system, 108,000 children under the age of 18 are currently waiting for adoptive families, according to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). Since the AdoptUSKids project began in 2002, 25,000 children who were once photo listed on adoptuskids.org are now with their adoptive families and nearly 38,000 families have registered to adopt through AdoptUSKids. 41 percent of the approximately 5,360 youth listed on the website are aged between 15 and 18 years old.
To view the Multimedia News Release, go to http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7673451-ad-council-national-adoption-campaign/
To kick off Lung Cancer Awareness Month this November, the American Lung Association’s LUNG FORCE initiative, nationally presented by CVS Health, today announced its partnership with Grammy Award-winning singer Patti LaBelle to further educate the public about lung cancer, the leading cancer killer of women in the United States.
Personally affected by lung cancer, LaBelle hopes that lending her powerful voice to the cause will encourage all women to learn how they can make a difference in the fight to defeat lung cancer, which claims the life of one woman every eight minutes in the United States. Raising awareness is critical as only 1 percent of American women even have lung cancer on their health radar.
To view the Multimedia News Release, go to http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7664651-lung-force-patti-labelle-educate-public/
Autism Speaks – the world’s leading autism science and advocacy organization – today joined the Ad Council and BBDO New York, the long-time volunteer agency for Autism Speaks, to announce the launch of a new series of public service advertisements (PSAs) designed to help parents recognize the early signs of autism and take immediate action. For the first time in the campaign’s history, the new PSAs feature an imaginative world, created using 3D and stop-motion animation, inspired by stories of real children with autism and told from the perspective of a child with autism. The PSAs are an extension of the award-winning “Learn the Signs” campaign, created by BBDO, which has helped significantly increase the percentage of parents who recognize the early warning signs of autism.
To view the Multimedia News Release, go to http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7674151-ad-council-autism-speaks-psa-s-2015/
Shell today celebrated the official opening of the Quest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Alberta, Canada, and the start of commercial operations there. Quest is designed to capture and safely store more than one million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year – equal to the emissions from about 250,000 cars. Quest was made possible through strong collaboration between the public and private sectors aimed at advancing CCS globally.
To view the Multimedia News Release, go to http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7680751-shell-quest-carbon-capture-storage/
As sleaze oozes from the Pentagon,
banished Marine and Naval Academy alum Susanna Marcasi finds a web of
corruption and must take on a man to whom all are beholden, Defense
Secretary Manfred Stahl. Can she bring down the cloistered power
brokers deep within the military’s superstructure and survive? Blood
Stripe: The Susanna Marcasi Chronicles. Find out more at:
http://www.GinaMariaDiNicolo.com or on Amazon at:
http://j.mp/Blood-Stripe Cincinnati City Beat and
Amazon reviewer John Kelly says “Like a literary version of ‘A Few Good
Men (and Women)’ on steroids, Gina Maria DiNicolo rips into your
emotional core like a ‘kill shot’ from page one and never lets up for
322 pages. This book, not for the weak of heart, tells the story of
strength, courage and no mercy in the most elite units of the U.S.
Armed Forces.” Baltimore native Gina Maria DiNicolo graduated
from the U.S. Naval Academy with a degree in history and an attraction
to the unconventional. She accepted a commission in the U.S. Marine
Corps where she worked in aviation, recruiting, history, and public
affairs. As a fulltime author and historian, in addition to her two
books, DiNicolo has written scores of articles for the Military Officer
Magazine and other publications. After publishing Blood Stripe, she
sought to get her historian game on and accepted a one-year, work/study
assignment as a senior editor for the U.S. Army Center of Military
History in Washington, D.C., producing studies on military operations
in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is a dancer specializing in Argentine
Tango. For a review copy of Blood Stripe: The Susanna
Marcasi Chronicles or to arrange an interview with Gina Maria
DiNicolo contact Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications Book
Marketing http://www.book-marketing-expert.com/ or by phone
734-667-2090.
As part of their ongoing Stop the Texts. Stop the Wrecks. Texting and Driving Prevention campaign, the Ad Council and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are partnering with YouTube creator and actress Meg DeAngelis to raise awareness of this dangerous behavior. The collaboration also coincides with the release of new television campaign public service advertisements (PSAs) and the launch of Project Yellow Light, a national video contest and scholarship program that aims to educate young drivers on and generate engagement around this issue.
Meg is joining the effort as part of the Ad Council’s Creators for Good program by distributing new exclusive video content to her almost four million subscribers on YouTube. The video amplifies the campaign message, showing drivers that no matter how “safely” they think they can drive while doing other things, distracted driving is always dangerous. Created as an advice video, Meg runs through “10 Everyday Things You’re Doing Wrong” - from putting in bobby pins to folding your clothes - and ends with a serious message to her fans about the dangers of texting and driving.
“Texting and driving is such a serious issue, so I'm really proud to be a voice of this important campaign,” said DeAngelis. “I want all of my viewers to stay safe, so I hope that together, we can spread the word on the dangers of distracted driving.”
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7682151-ad-council-project-yellow-light/
International research led by University College London (UCL) as part of the ‘Cities Changing Diabetes’ partnership programme challenges current scientific understanding of the rapid rise of diabetes in cities. The findings suggest that in cities around the world, social and cultural factors play a far more important role in the spread of the epidemic than previously thought.
More than two thirds of the world’s 400 million people with diabetes live in urban areas.1,2 The year-long study for Cities Changing Diabetes, a unique public-private-academic partnership, sought to better understand what makes people vulnerable to type 2 diabetes in cities in order to inform solutions for one of the most pressing modern-day public health challenges. To explore this complex issue, more than 550 interviews were undertaken with at-risk and diagnosed people in five major cities – Copenhagen, Houston, Mexico City, Shanghai and Tianjin.
“By largely focusing on biomedical risk factors for diabetes, traditional research has not adequately accounted for the impact of social and cultural drivers of disease,” says David Napier, Professor of Medical Anthropology, UCL. “Our pioneering research will enable cities worldwide to help populations adapt to lifestyles that make them less vulnerable to diabetes.”
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7690951-study-rethink-rise-diabetes-in-cities/
Christina Nicols, senior vice president and director of strategic planning and research at Hager Sharp, was named the Washington Women in Public Relations’ (WWPR) 2015 Washington PR Woman of the Year Friday in a ceremony honoring top public relations executives and celebrating women in communications.
Nicols was one of three public relations professionals chosen as an honoree for the 26th annual award. The other finalists were Carrie Fox, president of C. Fox Communications, and Lisa Throckmorton, chief operations officer at SpeakerBox Communications. The three finalists represent women who have led some of the most influential communications campaigns in the District and across the country.
“This is a phenomenal honor and I am humbled to be surrounded by such exemplary leaders in the field who are dedicated to mentoring and supporting the next generation of public relations professionals,” said Nicols. “It is a special privilege to join the ranks of previous PR Woman of the Year recipients including Hager Sharp’s own cofounders Susan Hager and Marcia Sharp, as well as our CEO Jennifer Wayman and executive vice president Debra Silimeo.”
Nicols was presented the award by Silimeo, the 2010 PR Woman of the Year, at Friday’s luncheon.
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7695751-2015-wwpr-woman-of-the-year-award/
“Want to enjoy life,” “like to learn things,” “look for adventures and like to take risks” – these traits tell the story of how Americans perceive entrepreneurs, as revealed in the 2015 Amway Global Entrepreneurship Report (AGER).
It’s an optimism that permeates the research again this year, with 86 percent of Americans expressing positive attitudes toward entrepreneurship, up a remarkable 24 percent from 2014 and a resounding 11 percent more than the 2015 global average (75 percent). Echoed by their strong desire for “independence from an employer” and “self-fulfillment, possibility to realize own ideas,” at 75 percent and 72 percent respectively, this positivity is indicative of the country’s thriving entrepreneurial spirit.
“The attitude toward entrepreneurship is not only remarkably high but significantly increased from last year when fewer than two-thirds of respondents reported a positive attitude,” notes Dr. David B. Audretsch, professor and director of the Institute for Development Strategies at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs. “What’s more, the secondary importance of financial compensation contradicts the most prevalent stereotypes and myths about why people choose entrepreneurship.”
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7402451-amway-ager-spirit-index/
As 2015 starts to wind down, Americans are already starting to make travel plans for 2016. But what are Americans–particularly Baby Boomers–looking for in their 2016 vacations?
A new survey released today from AARP Travel (http://travel.aarp.org), a valuable resource for America's 76 million Baby Boomers who spend over $120 billion annually in leisure travel, provides some great insight into how Americans want to get away in 2016, from desired destinations to lodging options to favorite trip planning tools.
“The vast majority of Baby Boomers are planning to drive, fly or set sail on leisure trips in 2016, with an average of 4 or 5 trips already in the works,” said Stephanie Miles, VP, Products & Platforms, AARP. “Boomers make up a large segment of the traveling public, and so it's particularly important for the travel industry to be aware of what Boomers are looking for in their vacations going into 2016. This new survey finds that their travel desires often differ greatly from younger travelers.”
To view the multimedia release go to:
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7488431-aarp-travel/
