Old PSAs you remember.

Pee-Wee Herman's anti-crack PSA

This one was inappropriately upbeat.

Crack is whack!

They call me Yuckmouth, 'cause I don't brush my teeth!

[quote]Here's a fun one with another Jenny - Jenny Lewis and Danny Pintauro. "Don't do crack!" Kind of ironic

Isn't it kind of creepy that little kids are lecturing about using crack? What experience have they had? It's not like they are speaking from experience.

Sally and those stinky children - cough cough cough.

There was this great one in which the drunk husband brings flowers home to his wife and she responds, "Roses? I don't want roses; I want you to stop drinking." It was so over the top. I'd like to see it again.

It's 10 PM. Do you know where your children are?

Julie Through the Glass All PSAs pale in comparison. My mother and sisters used to get weepy to this. It's primordial frau.

I don't say this often. Thread. Closed.

To bad Carly would only donate the song and not her vocals because it's a beautiful song when Carly does it.

Geez r9, that's like a mini After School Special.

It is R10. The director of that video knew what they were doing.

I've always considered the Schoolhouse Rock series to be a type of PSA. It was basically saying, "Your parents and teachers are too stupid to teach you anything, so you can learn it all in a 2 minute Saturday morning cartoon." It really was how I learned about a bill becoming a law.

I don't really understand what the Julie PSA has to do with Mormonism. I thought Julie was going to get knocked up by the boy who put his hand on her shoulder, or OD, or something. If we were supposed to know they are Mormons, the family should have had about 8 more kids running around.

How come they didn't show Julie marrying into a polygamous cult?

Twist ending!

Back in olden days, radio and TV stations had to commit to playing a certain percentage of community affairs programming and PSAs in their filings with the FCC, and they held you to it at license renewal time. It was a different media landscape then. So it wasn't unusual to hear long form-PSA programs, some of them pretty good.

On my first radio job, I'd (quickly!) write a local newscast during a 10 minute version of Voices of Vista, Guard Session or similar recorded PSA show. VISTA, now AmeriCorps, was an alternative service option for conscientious objectors during part of the Vietnam war.

What you have to understand is that in the 70s, the Mormons (Church of Latter Day Saints) put their name on EVERYTHING. They had commercials all over the place, they had tv offers where they would send you a free Bible, they had booths set up at county fairs. Their Mormon Tabernacle Choir must have finally paid out in cash because they were all over the place in the 1970s. They were like the "Up With People" of churches.

Anti-crack, with the actress from "My so-Called Life":

The Mormons pizza for old people commercial:

R17 I had such a thing, as a teen, for those Mormon boys. There was a hall by my house and they used to come knocking at my house all of the time, in their little button ups and slacks. Until I kissed one when I was probably 17(16?). Then they suddenly stopped coming. Those were sad days, my friend.

Classic 1980s Canadian anti-drinking PSA.

[quote]The Mormons pizza for old people commercial:

If some little kids brought homemade pizza to my door, I'd be awfully suspicious. That little blond boy used to be in everything...wasn't he one of Punky Brewster's friends?

This one is reminiscent of that "very special" Diff'rent Strokes episode.

The anti-pollution PSA with the weeping Indian in his canoe.

In the early 70s there was a United Negro College Fund commercial that has a young black man returning to his hood from pounding the pavement. He passes some guys pitching pennies and they exchange hellos. At the end of the commercial he enters a dingy sparsely furnished SRO with a pitiful woman dressed in a simple white sleeveless shift or nightie standing at the ironing board with the iron plugged into a dim bare bulb ceiling light cord. She woefully asks, "Didja get the job?" and he doesn't say anything.

Another early 70s PSA that ran during The Children's Film Festival on Saturdays was about littering where a faceless roving reporter asked kids their thoughts about litter. One boy at a play lot said why should I care. There was a little fat girl standing on a city sidewalk I think she was holding bags of groceries who expressed concern regarding people who littered. Very cute. That's all I can remember.

Why I've never done drugs abroad.

Bette Midler against crack.

[quote]a United Negro College Fund commercial

I remember that one R24.

There was an old Canadian PSA about shoplifting that scared the shit out of me as a kid. I've never been able to find it anywhere.

I liked this one because of the Kate Bush song.

Another Mormon one....I still have this song memorized.

I remember that one R8, except where I lived on the East Coast it was 11 p.m.

This one simply because I had a crush on the kid.

Debbie Allen asks, "It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your children are?" She means business!

My friends and I loved this one. We only liked it because we would try and outdo each other by belting it as loud as we could. We did NOT sound good.

The Crying Indian. Part of the new environmental awareness movement of the early 1970s.

Hot Smokey Bear says, "Only YOU can stop forest fires!"

Old seat belt PSA from the 1970s. I came from a large family. We kids would just tumble around all over three rows of seats in a station wagon without any seat belts at all. My parents didn't wear theirs, either. That all changed after the seatbelt-safety campaign of the early 1970s.

Sorry about the video quality in the link. There was a memorable drunk driving PSA that I couldn't find a link for at all. The viewer heard animated conversation and glasses clinking, and then the camera panned over a cemetery, where apparently the partygoers ended up after drinking and driving.

I always liked this one

Don't Copy That Floppy! I suppose the modern equivalent would be those anti-piracy ads that say "you wouldn't download a car, would you?" (hell yes, I would).

Technically not a PSA, but here's anti-drug warrior Bill Cosby demonstrating what it would sound like to be raped by him, complete with 70's porn music.

R32 Aww, that one's actually really touching.

One of the original Marlboro Men doing an anti-smoking PSA. Smoking eventually killed him.

Circa 1970, a young man calls a bunch of small kids over on a playground and says . . .

Kiddies, kiddies gather 'round The man with the goodies is here . . .

(errr, why transcribe it? Turns out it was on Youtube)

William Talman (Hamilton Burger) anti-smoking PSA. He died shortly after filming this.

A newer one...dead girls texting

And here's Yul Brynner's anti-smoking PSA -- broadcast only AFTER his death, for more impact.

Woodsy Owl, give a hoot, don't pollute.

We eldergays must remember Conelrad. And you young'uns who might have wondered what those triangle markings at 640 an 1240 on the AM dial of old radios was all about ...

This was on with Yuckmouth.

Boys Beware!

I remember hurricane preparedness psa showing what remained of a house party in Pass Christian. It had the intended effect of scaring the bejeus out of me. I'm not having any luck with Youtube, though.

Wow R50, I saw that video on You Tube a couple of years ago. It's frightening to think that aired on public television.

This one was the MARY!-est psa of the 70s. This is actually the second version of this ad; the woman in the first was was way more hysterical:

"Stop, drop and roll."

r32 Thanks for posting the "He ain't heavy....." video. It probably wouldn't be fashionable to be a fan of it, since it is religious in origin( it is attributed to Father Flanagan, who started the orphanage known as Boys Town, in Nebraska) The revered priest was said to have accosted one of his charges, who was carrying a boy on his back, the priest asked the boy, "Isn't he too heavy for you to carry?" The boy responded, "He ain't heavy, Father, he's my brother." I remember seeing a gay version of its very moving sentiment in a pen and ink drawing many years ago, the carrier saying, "He ain't heavy, he's my lover." I'm sitting here, awash in tears, thinking not of my brother(who thankfully doesn't need support) but my husband who's experiencing some tough physical and emotional challenges. Perhaps we can all think of someone who needs to be "carried", and be helped through a rough time.

Mr. Yuk is mean. Mr. Yuk is GREEN!

"Home is full of lots of things that children shouldn't touch. Home is full of bad things that you can hurt you very much."

You ain't goin' nowhere without that sheepskin, fella.

r46 - Here is an even earlier version of a celebrity anti-smoking PSA. William Talman, who played Hamilton Berger on PERRY MASON filmed this in 1968, six weeks before his death from lung cancer.

The recent anti-smoking PSA with the woman with the stoma always freaks me out.

There was an American Selective Service PSA in the late 1970s I think, with a guy riding his motorcycle through the desert and when he gets to a post office the locals think he's going to cause trouble but he's just there to register. Can't find that one anywhere.

I am Astar, a robot. I can put my arm back on but you can't. Play safe.

This MADD one is disturbing as hell. The kid is a great actor.

Classic Canadian Participaction commercial from the 1980s. Every kid knew this song by hart.

R58 see R44

THIS PSA scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. Unfortunately, it did little to deter me from smoking. Sorry for the shitty quality. BTW--that's Thurl Ravenscroft NOT James Earl Jones narrating.

Disturbing anti-drug psa showing the deterioration of beautiful young actor Rodney Harvey, who died of a heroin overdose (I remember a different version of this ad, where the final pic is of Rodney's toe tag).

Wow, Rodney was absolutely gorgeous...what a waste.

Cross at the green Not in between

Julie Through the Glass is the best PSA evah. They kept it on TV for decades even if the clothes and everything looked dated.

Interesting article on the Mormon commercials and their popularity.

When Julie Through the Glass came on no one left the room to pee or get food. It became quiet and everyone would watch. Then it would stay quiet for a bit and mom would always have a little tear.... It's some of the most effective 2:00 worth of video ever shot. The way the little girl looks at her mom putting on makeup. Every girl has been there. It made me just want to get married, stay home, and have babies.

This one gave me an irrational fear of diving into a swimming pool with no water. The harsh 'boooiiinggg' didn't help.

Who's narrating that Rodney Harvey PSA? It sounds familiar.

Jeez r32 I'd never seen that one before and it made me tear up. Sad to think of them as little kids playing on the boat and then one gets sucked into drug addiction. But his buddy is still there, so there's hope that he'll be okay!

Good psa.

My favorite PSA had an older American Indian surveying all the polution, trash and damage to nature as a single tear rolled down his cheek.

This drunk driving PSA from Australia.

"We're talking about your job here."

"No, we're talking about sexual harassment here. And I don't have to take it."

Jeez, broads in the workplace!!

camp Fire Girls!!!

R77

OMG! Is that Russ Mathews from Another World?

WTF r2?

I really liked NBC's "The More You Know" PSA's this one featured a hot George Clooney.