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chris319:

--- Quote ---Public service announcements are, by definition, advertisements.
--- End quote ---
Good heavens, no. You've never worked for a commercial broadcast station, have you? PSAs and promotional announcements are logged differently, treated by the FCC differently, accounted for differently, the time is not sold, make-goods are never given and they bring in zero revenue to the station. As any Broadcasting 101 student can tell you, there is a world of difference between a paid advertisement, a public service announcement and a promo.

Matt Ottinger:
[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Nov 12 2003, 03:58 PM\']
--- Quote ---Public service announcements are, by definition, advertisements.
--- End quote ---
Good heavens, no. You've never worked for a commercial broadcast station, have you? PSAs and promotional announcements are logged differently, treated by the FCC differently, accounted for differently, the time is not sold, make-goods are never given and they bring in zero revenue to the station. As any Broadcasting 101 student can tell you, there is a world of difference between a paid advertisement, a public service announcement and a promo. [/quote]
 And make no mistake, the Treasury Department is not just making PSAs for stations to run.  They're actually spending millions of dollars as part of a commercial campaign to convince people that the funny-colored money spewing out of their ATMs is legit.

Dan Sadro:
[quote name=\'chris319\' date=\'Nov 12 2003, 01:58 PM\']
--- Quote ---Public service announcements are, by definition, advertisements.
--- End quote ---
As any Broadcasting 101 student can tell you, there is a world of difference between a paid advertisement, a public service announcement and a promo. [/quote]
Either I'm being confusing or you are misunderstanding my argument.

Public service announcements are a type of advertisement, because it is a promotion of a service, product, or opinion.  The fact that the stations account for it differently does not change the fact that it is an advertisement.  If I stood at the street corner yelling "Only YOU can prevent forest fires," I'm still advertising.

PSAs are not free, either.  If you don't pay the station for PSAs, that means less ad revenue, less net income, and less taxes received.  It's still a cost of the PSA, albeit deferred.  Donations such as the ones to the U.S. Forestry Department for Smokey the Bear resulted in less tax revenue because donations also can lower taxable income.

Lemonjello:
[quote name=\'GS Warehouse\' date=\'Nov 10 2003, 01:58 PM\'] At the risk of going off-topic: the redesigned $20 bill is not being received very well.  It's being rejected by vending machines, and it took only one week for counterfeits to be discovered.  Back to the drawing board. [/quote]
 No need. There's nothing wrong with the bills. As you said, counterfeits WERE discovered. If counterfeits could NOT be detected, THEN it would be back to the drawing board.

Matt Ottinger:
It'll help to quote your larger point, which was:

--- Quote ---Public service announcements are, by definition, advertisements. Whether it's "This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs" or "Look at the new $20," they're still advertising a product, service, or opinion.
--- End quote ---
In an extremely broad sense, I see your point.  I just don't believe it's relevant.  

In the real world of TV economics, there is an enormous difference between PSAs and paid advertising.  The fact that as communication tools, they are designed to elicit similar results is an interesting thing to discuss in a conversation about the power and influence of the media.  However, the method by which the "This is your brain" campaign reached the viewer was completely different from the method the government is currently using to commercially market the new twenty-dollar bill.


--- Quote ---PSAs are not free, either. If you don't pay the station for PSAs, that means less ad revenue, less net income, and less taxes received.
--- End quote ---

Again, that's economic philosophy vs real world practicality.   A station manager who runs PSAs instead of paid commercials won't have a station to manage for very long.  He's not going to be too concerned about the "big picture" view that the costs got absorbed somewhere else while he's filing for unemployment.

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