New PSAs, Microsite Aim to Keep Teens in School

The U.S. Army and the Ad Council are introducing new PSAs in their Boost Up campaign encouraging students ages 9 to 17 to stay in school. The TV, radio, print, outdoor and online work was produced pro bono by Publicis, New York. The effort targets friends, parents and adult influencers of at-risk students, directing them to go to www.BoostUp.org to learn about dropout rates, the challenges of staying in school until graduation and how to get involved with students or classroom projects in their communities. Approximately 7,000 teens drop out of high school every day. Also unveiled today was Boost Nation, a microsite created with the 26 Seconds BMOR campaign, which was launched earlier this year by State Farm with the America's Promise Alliance and the NBA's LeBron James to make people aware that a student drops out of high school every 26 seconds. The effort asks teens 13 to 19 to be more, or BMOR, than the statistic by committing to graduate. The microsite is set up to encourage people to create and post videos and written messages for students to let them know that people around the country do care that they graduate. Video messages from James and Miss America 2011 Teresa Scanlan are on the site. "It's easy for people to ignore issues like the high school dropout rate. But frankly the numbers are staggering and can't be ignored," said Rob Feakins, president-chief creative officer, Publicis, New York, in announcing the new PSAs. "We felt the numbers were both alarming and a compelling way to make people aware of a real issue. This campaign was to try to make people aware of what it means when we say 7,000 kids drop out every single day across the U.S."

New PSAs, Microsite Aim to Keep Teens in School

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