Public Service Advertising

advertising with a central focus on the public welfare. Public-service advertising is generally sponsored by a nonprofit institution, civic group, religious organization, trade association, or political group. Typically, it is directed at some humanitarian cause, philosophical ideal, political concept, or religious viewpoint. Most public-service advertising involves the donation of time or space on part of the medium in which it is featured, although free time or space is not a prerequisite for this type of advertising. Groups such as the Red Cross, United Way, and International Ladies Garment Workers Union have sponsored a great deal of publicservice advertising.