AccentHealth Partners with the Ad Council to Support National Health-Focused Public Service Campaigns

NEW YORK, June 2 /PRNewswire/ -- AccentHealth announced today that they have partnered with the Ad Council on an initiative to raise awareness of health and safety issues by displaying a series of the Ad Council's public service advertisements (PSAs) in doctor's office waiting rooms throughout the country. Starting this month, AccentHealth will be supporting the Ad Council and the American Heart Association's Hands-Only™ CPR campaign in conjunction with CPR Week in an effort to help educate 1 million Americans about CPR.

AccentHealth, the nation's largest waiting room patient education television network, has been supporting public service ads developed by the Ad Council since 1998. AccentHealth airs PSAs to an audience of 12.8 million viewers each month on its waiting room television networks. For the first time, this week the program was extended to physician's waiting room walls using framed print PSAs of the Hands-Only™ CPR campaign.

The framed posters, known as "Health Panels," also feature relevant editorial health content placed adjacent to the print ad. The Hands-Only™ CPR Awareness PSA has been placed beside complementary content focusing on heart health. The PSA will reach a Nielsen-verified audience of 1.1 million adults during the month of June alone.  

The Hands-Only™ CPR ads are being distributed to 1,000 doctor's office waiting rooms across the country.  The campaign aims to empower bystanders to help save a life by using a Hands-Only method of CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) when an adult collapses and is unresponsive. For more information on Hands-Only™ CPR, visit www.handsonlycpr.org. To learn more about CPR Week, visit www.cprweek.org.

Promoting CPR Awareness and other health-focused campaigns in the environment of the doctor's office waiting room offers the unique opportunity to talk about serious health and medical topics at a time when adults are thinking about health. Additionally, those exposed to the PSAs in the captive environment of the doctor's office are more likely to remember the ads. In fact, studies show that AccentHealth television has an ad recall that is twice as high as commercial television.

"We are thrilled to donate this media opportunity to the American Heart Association and the Ad Council in an effort to raise awareness for this important life-saving technique. We know that the uniqueness of the doctor's office environment will provide awareness and credibility for this campaign and for future causes," said Edith Hodkinson, President, Media Division of AccentHealth.

AccentHealth, who works with some of the country's largest consumer packaged goods and pharmaceutical sponsors on paid advertising, donates available media space and supports important causes whenever possible.  

"AccentHealth's support provides us with the opportunity to communicate with millions of consumers in an environment where they are thinking about their health and, therefore, more receptive to certain messages," Peggy Conlon, CEO of the Ad Council said, "We are very grateful to AccentHealth for their support of the Hands-Only™ CPR campaign, and many other efforts that are providing critical health information to Americans."

To date, AccentHealth has supported Ad Council campaigns including Autism Awareness, Obesity Prevention, Haiti Disaster Relief, Diabetes Management, Nutrition Education and many others. Over the past 15 years, AccentHealth has donated a significant amount of media time to Ad Council campaigns.

AccentHealth

AccentHealth, America's largest Healthy Lifestyle TV Network, has a long history of supporting public service campaigns and educating Americans about critical health issues. Created specifically for patients in medical waiting rooms, the AccentHealth program reaches 154 million viewers annually in 12,000 waiting rooms nationwide. Since 1995, AccentHealth has been providing trusted patient education TV programming produced by CNN's award-winning Medical Unit.  The monthly program is co-hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent and Robin Meade, CNN's Headline News Morning Anchor and features educational health content on topics such as medical breakthroughs, seasonal health, heart health, parenting, nutrition and fitness.  For more information about AccentHealth visit www.accenthealth.com.

The Advertising Council

The Ad Council (www.adcouncil.org) is a private, non-profit organization that marshals talent from the advertising and communications industries, the facilities of the media, and the resources of the business and non-profit communities to produce, distribute and promote public service campaigns on behalf of non-profit organizations and government agencies. The Ad Council addresses issue areas such as improving the quality of life for children, preventive health, education, community well-being, environmental preservation and strengthening families.

SOURCE AccentHealth