Since 1942, the Ad Council has offered trusted advice and inspiring calls-to-action. In fact, they created the category of public service advertising, and their icons and slogans are woven into the very fabric of American culture. The Ad Council is where Smokey Bear lives. The Ad Council saw that “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” and reminded Americans that, “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.”
Today, they are working with the U.S. Forest Service on the Discover the Forest campaign.
While the established PSA campaign has focused on reconnecting families with nature by encouraging first-hand experiences, this effort aims to make a deeper connection. Today’s U.S. forest lands face a range of urgent challenges, among them wildfires, more public demands, invasive species, degraded watersheds, and epidemics of forest insects and disease. To address these challenges and improve forest conditions, the U.S. Forest Service depend upon a diverse collection of local communities and individuals to act as caretakers for protection and maintenance.
Example volunteer-focused scenes that could be included (but not all) are:
- Trash removal from ponds, along trails
- Removing invasive species (weeding)
- Trail maintenance
- Leaving places better than we found it
- Tree planting
Acceptable nature actions that can be represented in the video, if applicable:
- Having immersive and sensory experiences with the forest; feel the texture of trees, grass, rocks, etc.
- Observing animals from a safe distance
- Taking in beautiful scenery
- Listening to forest sounds/animals
- Collecting and playing with fallen leaves, rocks, and sticks
- Running and playing in an open area
- Crossing logs/paths through a stream
REFERENCE VIDEOS FOR INSPIRATION OR TONE:
***Please Note that only U.S. Residents are eligible to submit for this project.***
Established in 2009, the "Discover the Forest" public service ad campaign has worked for over a decade to foster strong relationships that connect Americans to public lands across the nation. The Ad Council would like to encourage eco-volunteerism by inspiring multicultural families to strengthen the bonds with their loved ones and the environment by helping the U.S. Forest Service maintain public lands.
We now need your help to cultivate the next generation of environmental stewards with a video that recognizes that this next generation is more multi-cultural than ever before. African American and Hispanic families don’t often see themselves represented in environmental communications, so it is less likely that they’ll consider these volunteering opportunities for their own families. Having this volunteer experience at a young age benefits everybody. It’s an enjoyable and rewarding experience that families can bond over together. What better way to reconnect with your family and your community than spending time outdoors and working together to leave it better than when you found it?
DELIVERABLES: 4 Total Video Assets
- A 1-2 minute inspiring video in both English & Spanish
- A 15-30 second 4x5 social cut in both English & Spanish
TIMELINE: For the full project timeline please see the Assets section.
EXPOSURE:
TARGET AUDIENCE:
- African American and Hispanic parents of tweens (8-12 years old)
- Those who know the value of spending time in the forest for their families and community, but may not yet be engaging with deeper volunteer opportunities.
TONE:
- Positive, inspiring, authentic and relatable
EXECUTIONAL MANDATORIES:
- Video must drive to DiscoverTheForest.org/Volunteer (and DescubreelBosque.org/Voluntariar for Spanish)
- Emphasize the availability and ease of volunteer activities, examples in the Background section
- Focus on the experience with the natural environment
- Focus on the bond between parent and children 8-12
- Prioritize forest visuals, particularly those that are close in proximity to urban environments
- Forest visuals must look like they could exist anywhere in the United States. (This means no distinct topographic or botanical landmarks, ie. no palm trees.)
- Please start looking into location availability and releases as soon as possible. It would be helpful to include your location plans in your treatment.
- Need to visualize actions in the forest in an accurate way and model safe behavior
- Don't make any references to religion/religious figures (including "God" or “oh my god”)
- No references to politics, or individual policymakers or elected officials
- Please do NOT depict talent:
- Touching animals
- Wearing open-toed shoes
- Picking live leaves or flowers* (*unless this is invasive plant removal)
- Wandering off a designated trail area
- Running through a wooded area
- In dimly-lit or remote-looking locations.
- Climbing trees/rocks
- Animals and plants MUST be a native species to the particular forest
- Animals and plants CANNOT be an invasive species in that area
OPEN BID:
- This is an open bid project, so you will get to set your own budget proposal within the $8,000-$15,000 range. The Sponsor is interested in seeing tiered pricing options, so please feel free to submit various versions of your pitch at budget, target, and reach price points within that price range.
- By participating in this open bid project, creators acknowledge that the Sponsor is under no obligation to greenlight a bid. Though most open bid projects on our platform do move forward with a greenlit bid, we will notify you in the event the Sponsor decides not to fund any bids via the project forum. Regardless of the result, all open bid submissions will be reviewed and evaluated by the Sponsor and the project team.
In order to be considered for this project, you must include the below materials in your pitch submission. For examples of effective pitches, check out this gallery.
- TEXT (REQUIRED): 500 characters or less synopsizing how you plan to approach and execute this video.
- LINKS (REQUIRED): To your previous video work. Please specify your role (producer, director, cinematography, etc.) and DO NOT INCLUDE LINKS TO YOUR SHOWREEL. Please link to individual videos.
- TREATMENT (REQUIRED): A detailed narrative description of what's going to happen in the video. If it's helpful to you, we've provided a treatment template, which you can find here.
- BUDGET (REQUIRED): This is an open bid project, so you’ll get to set your overall budget proposal. You can download the budget template here. The Sponsor would like the producer to create 4 videos with a total cost between $8,000-$15,000.
- SCRIPT (Optional): This should include dialogue from the video you intend to create.
- STORYBOARDS (Optional): Additional concept art, storyboards, shot list, anything that helps get your point across. You can download the Tongal storyboard template here.
- HEADSHOTS/CASTING BOARDS (Optional): Casting notes or concepts, headshots of actors, etc.
- PITCH VIDEO (Optional): This is your opportunity to be face-to-face with the Sponsor and show them what you're capable of. Consider submitting a pitch video in which you tell the Sponsor what they can expect should they choose your pitch. Also, test videos, animatics, etc. are welcome. For some examples of effective Pitch videos, check out this gallery. All Pitches will remain private until after the Sponsor gives creator(s) the green light to move forward.