Marketplace Advocacy Campaigns: Generating Public Support for Bus ...

campaign featured a premature infant in a plastic incubator, a man able to walk thanks to a prosthetic joint, and a young boy playing football protected by his plastic helmet and pads (Harris Interactive, 2006).

Within several years of the campaign’s launch, the percentage of Americans who felt they should avoid plastic-packaged products decreased by 11 points, and the percentage of Americans who believed the benefits of plastics outweighed the negatives increased by 14 points. In the legislative arena, the number of bills proposed in state legislatures with potentially negative impacts for the plastics industry was cut in half. Plastic bags, meanwhile, became a top choice for grocery stores (Harris Interactive, 2006). In 1997, the Advertising Research Foundation awarded the American Plastics Council, Harris Interactive, and D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles the David Ogilvy Award for Excellence in Advertising Research for the “Plastics Make it Possible?” campaign.

In the last decade, the campaign has expanded to include an interactive Web site, RSS feeds, Facebook, and Twitter. Charitable giving also plays a fundamental role in the campaign. In 2010, for example, “Plastics Make it Possible?” partnered with Desert Storm veteran and Paralympian John Register to raise money for the Athletes with Disabilities Network (ADN), a subsidiary of Easter Seals Michigan, to celebrate the achievements of athletes competing in the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games. According to a campaign news release featured on PR Newswire, the initiative, which collected donations via the “Plastics Make it Possible?” Web site and Facebook page and then matched both corporate and private donations, helped raise nearly $50,000 to inspire athletes with disabilities to become Paralympians (Plastics Make It Possible, 2010). Partnerships with charitable causes such as the Athletes with Disabilities Network offer an opportunity for the plastics industry to present itself to the public in a way that links its product with worthwhile societal goals. In this case, the industry was able to highlight the advantages of plastics for the charitable organization, in particular the vital role of plastics in the active prostheses that are used by disabled athletes.

In recent years, public concerns regarding plastics have expanded beyond environmental issues to include the potential negative health