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High Blood Pressure Education (Ad Council / National High Blood Pressure Education Program)

From the 1970s the Ad Council arranged TV and radio spots for the NHLBI's National High Blood Pressure Education Program, which began in 1972, with production paid by the Heart Institute. Mary Lasker brought NHLBI director Theodore Cooper to the Ad Council. Lasker Award citations credit the Ad Council's cooperation with raising public and professional awareness of treating high blood pressure.

Years
1972
Country
United States
Topic
Blood pressureCardiovascular
Asks people to
RecognizeSeek help
Strategy
Fear appealSimple instruction
Channel
PrintRadioTV
Audience
Adults

Evidence

ObservationalUnknown

Lasker's 1977 citation notes that the program coincided with a 20% drop in age-adjusted stroke deaths and a more than 15% drop in heart-disease deaths, 1973-77. Mary Lasker recalled a 60% rise in doctor visits for high blood pressure. These are program-wide trends or recollections. The Ad Council advertising's own effect cannot be separated out, so outcome is left as unknown.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Ad Council Ad Council (pro bono), campaign producer
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (National High Blood Pressure Education Program) Federal government, sponsor; paid production
  • Citizens for the Treatment of High Blood Pressure NGO, private-sector partner

Credits (who made it)

  • DKG, Inc. Creative, 1975-1976 source
  • Norman, Craig & Kummel Creative, 1977 source

Executions (individual ads)

Sources

  1. Theodore Cooper, Lasker Special Public Service Award (Lasker Foundation) history
  2. National Hypertension Control Program, Lasker Award (Elliot Richardson) history
  3. New Campaigns: Fighting High Blood Pressure and Glaucoma, 1973-1988 (NLM Profiles in Science, Mary Lasker) history
  4. University of Illinois Archives, Ad Council Historical File 1941-1997 (RS 13/2/207), finding aid, box(es) 55 archive

Research notes

Taxonomy gap: there is no cardiovascular or hypertension topic, so 'cardiovascular' is proposed here; add it to taxonomy.md or remap. The Ad Council start year is uncertain: 1972 is when the program began, and the Ad Council spots may date from 1973-75. A 1975 'Time Bomb' PSA is listed only on an unreliable aggregator. Lasker's account is in the Columbia oral history (Mary Lasker Papers transcripts). Originals: Illinois Archives RS 13/2/207, box(es) 55; 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 'High Blood Pressure': National Heart and Lung Institute (HEW) items by DKG, Inc. (1975-76) and NHLBI items by Norman, Craig & Kummel (1977). Undated-agency items run 1974-80, so the Ad Council work starts by 1974. A 1983 item for Citizens for Treatment of High Blood Pressure (Muller Jordan Weiss) is a separate sponsor.

Record cases/ad-council-high-blood-pressure.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign