Finally Ready for Prime Time?
RSSALA hopes a national publicity campaign will give libraries more visibility
Staff -- School Library Journal, 03/01/2000
The American Library Association (ALA) thinks it's high time to raise Jane and John Doe's awareness of the importance of libraries. And to do just that, ALA has hired the public relations firm of BSMG, headquartered in New York City, to put together a plan for a national public relations campaign promoting libraries. BSMG happens to be the same group that handled the publicity surrounding the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board's irresistible "Got Milk?" campaign. But don't start looking for billboards and glossy magazines flaunting photos of librarians sporting milk moustaches. To date, BSMG has simply created a first draft of a strategic plan for ALA to consider. According to Jennifer Sosin, BSMG's senior managing director, and Peggy Barber, ALA's associate executive director of communications, the plan would require ALA to add four or five full-time staffers and fork out approximately $600,000 per year--and that's not including the cost of paid advertising, such as TV spots and print ads, which, Sosin says, is "enormously expensive" and can easily run "many millions of dollars." How does a fiscally lean organization like ALA plan to get its hands on that kind of loot? Barber hopes the group will be able to find some "partners" (read: deep-pocketed corporations) to pick up much of the tab. BSMG's recommended strategy calls for ALA to target specific audiences, say parents and students, and craft its message to appeal to each group. Although Sosin stresses that it's too early to begin signing up pitchmen, she does have a wish list for ALA, which includes, among others, former President Jimmy Carter, U.S. women's figure-skating champion Michelle Kwan, and teen-throb actress Melissa Joan Hart. If ALA's executive board opts to move forward on the plan, as is expected, the details of the campaign may be presented to ALA members as early as this summer and the campaign itself launched in September.--R. M.
