Paid- versus donated-media strategies for public service announcement campaigns

Public service announcement (PSA) campaigns have traditionally relied on donated rather than paid advertising media. Recently, however, both government agencies and charitable organizations have questioned whether donated-media strategies should be abandoned for paid-media PSA campaigns. The present research examines this issue in a three-market field experiment comparing the effectiveness of "paid versus donated" PSA campaigns in decreasing youthful male drinking and driving. Dependent variables include (1) self-reports of behaviors from sample surveys and (2) official counts of incapacitating and fatal highway accidents. Results show that both campaigns were equally effective and both were cost efficient. Thus, in light of these results, it is recommended that social marketers not abandon donated-media PSA campaigns for paid-media PSA campaigns.