American Red Cross (Ad Council, 1945-1996)
The Ad Council's 50-year partnership with the American Red Cross, begun under the War Advertising Council in 1945. PSAs recruited blood donors and volunteers, enrolled people in health and safety courses, and raised funds, including emergency appeals.
- Years
- 1945–1996
- Country
- United States
- Topic
- Blood donationInjury prevention
- Asks people to
- Start
- Strategy
- Simple instruction
- Channel
- OutdoorPrintRadioTV
- Audience
- AdultsGeneral public
Evidence
Self-reportedUnknown
Sponsor claims only: one campaign helped recruit 30,000 volunteers in its first month, and a 1972 emergency appeal raised more than $15 million for victims of Hurricane Agnes. No blood-donation outcome data found.
Sponsor (who paid)
- War Advertising Council (renamed Advertising Council in 1946) Ad Council (pro bono), campaign producer
- Ad Council Ad Council (pro bono), campaign producer
- American Red Cross NGO, sponsor
Credits (who made it)
- Lennen & Mitchell Creative, 1947-1948 source
- N. W. Ayer & Son Creative, 1953 source
- J. Walter Thompson Creative, 1963-1996 source
- Harold Cabot / Cabot Communications Creative, 1989-1990 source
- D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) Creative, 1992-1995 source
- Carmichael Lynch Creative, 1993 source
- Sheff-Mauer Creative, 1994 source
Sources
- American Red Cross (1945-1996) (ANA Educational Foundation) history
- Our History (Ad Council) sponsor
- Ad Council: Campaign Video Recordings (RS 13/2/280; includes American Red Cross) archive
- Advertising Council records, 1935-2013 (Duke Rubenstein Library; Red Cross among campaigns) archive
- University of Illinois Archives, Ad Council Historical File 1941-1997 (RS 13/2/207), finding aid, box(es) 14-21, 139-140, 151 archive
Research notes
Topics: blood-donation, plus injury-prevention for the first-aid/safety courses. No source was found tying the Ad Council to the 1951 Korean War / National Blood Program drive, or to wartime 1943-44 blood donor ads; those were run by the Red Cross, DoD and civilian defense. The Illinois Archives list the Red Cross among major campaigns in the collection, and RS 13/2/280 holds Red Cross videos. Originals: Illinois Archives RS 13/2/207, box(es) 14-21, 139-140, 151; the parsed folder list is in data/ad-council-historical-file-13-2-207.tsv. Credits from the Illinois Historical File (13/2/207), Series 'American Red Cross': J. Walter Thompson accounts for 139 of 181 folders, 1963-1996 (slogan 'We'll help. Will you?'). Carmichael Lynch's 1993 item is 'Call 911 first' and Sheff-Mauer's 1994 item is disaster relief, so not every era is blood donation. Links (#82) checked 2026-10-23: Ad Council pages from the Wayback Machine (adcouncil.org's old campaign pages), the Our History timeline or its case studies; dead campaign sites point to a Wayback copy from the campaign years.
Record cases/ad-council-american-red-cross.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign