Public Communications

Welcome to the Family Violence Prevention Fund Media Center! Here you’ll find our most current public awareness and education work. We’ve also included useful information, samples, and instruction for adapting the campaign and getting the PSAs on air in your community! Check back often to see what’s new.

Coaching Boys into Men

Look, Listen, & Click! to our latest violence prevention campaign, Coaching Boys Into MenSM, which invites men to be part of the solution by teaching boys that violence is wrong. Created in collaboration with the Advertising Council and in partnership with the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention, this successful campaign is working to transform attitudes and behavior motivating mutual respect for women and girls.

Media Outreach Information

Bring Coaching Boys into Men to your community! Localize and help get the PSAs on air!

You can help build awareness about the importance of ending domestic violence by encouraging local media to run Coaching Boys into Men public service announcements (PSAs). Local media directors are often very open to doing what they can for good causes and charities. In fact, most stations set aside hours of time specifically for the purpose of airing PSAs. Also, stations listen to their local audience – so media outlets are more likely to run PSAs that address the issues that matter most to their local communities. Make it known that domestic violence is serious to you and that the media has role to play.

Make PSAs Work For You. Localize!

PSAs can help build awareness about domestic violence. They can help build awareness for your organization or your program, too. You can add “tags” with your organization’s name and contact information (usually a toll-free or local phone number) to FVPF’s produced television and radio commercials as well as our various posters and other materials.

Who to Contact

• Television: Broadcast affiliates and independent stations produce their own local news and also sell advertising to local businesses. Many of these stations are affiliates of a national broadcast network like ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, WB or UPN. For instance, in Atlanta the ABC affiliate is WSB-TV. Be sure to contact the staff at your equivalent of WSB-TV and not at the national ABC television network. You’ll want to get in touch with your local station’s Public Affairs Director, Communications Affairs Director, or General Manager.
• Cable: Contact the cable service providers in your area. Often times, Cable stations have more available free airtime for PSAs. You’ll want to talk to the cable company’s Advertising Director, Marketing Director, and General Manger.
• Radio: Contact the radio stations that reach your target audience. Radio stations are formatted for very specific audiences. For instance, the CBIM campaign messages targeting men may be well suited for sports stations. Try talking to the radio station’s Public Affairs Director, Communications Affairs Director, and the General Manager.
• Newspapers: Newspapers are the most difficult medium in which to place PSAs because they can print only the number of pages needed to fit the articles and paid advertisements for that day. Try to persuade local papers to use these ads in a meaningful and timely way. For instance, a local event in support of domestic violence prevention may be covered prominently in the news. Offer to share any expertise that you may have on domestic violence in your community if the news department needs further information. Start your conversations about the PSAs with the newspaper’s Director of Advertising and the Editor-in-Chief.

What to Say

These tips will help you to approach your local TV, radio, print, and online media outlet to encourage them to air the domestic violence prevention PSAs and online banners in your community.

• WATCH, READ, and LISTEN to your local media.
• Familiarize yourself with the PSAs (TV, radio, print, online)

When you approach your local media about running the PSA:

• Give your contact two or three vital statistics on domestic violence, and how it relates to your community.
• Be sure to inform your contact of any recent news stories that focus on domestic violence.
• Explain the goal of the campaign and how it can benefit listeners, viewers, or readers.
• Personalize the issue for the media director (the person at the media outlet who is in charge of deciding which public service announcements air).
• Outline next steps with your contact. For example, tell him/her that you will call in two months, plan another meeting, forward statistics, etc.
• Provide your contact information and encourage them to call, write, or email you.
• Of course, thank them for their time and be sure keep in touch.

Keep in mind that media outlets can order the PSAs online via the Ad Council website or by calling the Ad Council’s fulfillment center directly at 1-800-933-PSAS. Note: Ad Council orders will be fulfilled for media only.

Writing a Letter

We encourage you to write a letter! If you chose to do so, please use our letter template format, and follow these notes:

• Let PSA directors know how domestic violence affects your community.
• Be sure to adapt your letter based on the media format, e.g., radio, TV, or newspaper.
• Download Father and Son storyboards or TV scripts to attach with your letter.
• Ask them to run the Coaching Boys into Men Campaign – or your own localized version.
• PSA directors can call The Ad Council’s fulfillment center directly for broadcast quality copies of the national campaign. Note: Orders filled for media only.

Check out a full list of the Family Violence Prevention Fund’s campaigns!

There’s No Excuse for Domestic Violence

Imagine a place where every battered woman found the support she needed from her coworkers, friends, and neighbors to leave a violent relationship. A place where no one excuses abusive behavior and everyone is committed to being part of the solution. We can make this place a reality in our communities.

We believe that in order to stop domestic violence, it is necessary to change the social norms that allow domestic violence to exist in this country. There's No Excuse for Domestic Violence, launched in 1994, encouraged millions of people to question their tacit acceptance of domestic violence - and to begin to take action to stop it.

Domestic violence is everyone's business. Maybe you know someone who has faced domestic violence. Maybe you have experienced it yourself. Or maybe you think that domestic violence is simply wrong, and you want to do something about it.

The good news is domestic violence is a problem we can solve. There are things that each and every one of us can do to help.

*These PSAs are no longer available for broadcast but can be used for educational purposes only.

It’s Your Business

It's Your Business was a twelve-part radio micro-drama centered around a fictional but realistic domestic violence trial, as reported and discussed on a radio call-in show. Ma B, the show's celebrated host, enjoys a large listenership in local African-American radio. With pointed commentary and dare-to-air antics, Ma B makes no topic taboo and speaks out on the sensitive issue of domestic violence against African-American women. Family violence prevention is a topic of personal importance to Ma B. She is a domestic violence survivor who escaped because a friend continued to talk to, support, and encourage her.

The World of the Radio Drama

Loyal listeners heard and discussed Ma B's show each week in different locations - the barbershop, a boutique, a car, an apartment, and the emergency room. The show is always heard through the filter of the individual radio receivers of Ma B's fictional listeners. Over the course of the series, real world listeners come to know the relatives and friends of fictional radio listener Charlise, who is being beaten by her husband James. Charlise's family members regularly listen to Ma B's show and decide they can no longer turn the other cheek to James' violence, after hearing Ma B speak out about the problem. They learn – along with Ma B's other listeners – how to reach out and support victims of domestic violence, as well as how to let abusers know that the community will no longer tolerate abuse.

Public Service Announcements

Ma B, a local radio talk show host, seizes the opportunity to discuss domestic violence issues through the trial of Damon DeCur, using the events in the news as catalysts for discussion on her program. Damon DeCur is a high-profile local businessman who is accused of assaulting his girlfriend, Denise Champion. Together, DeCur and Champion appeared publicly to have been the perfect couple. They were considered successful, prosperous, glamorous, attractive, well-educated and sophisticated. Few would have associated them with any stereotypical profile of couples dealing with domestic violence.

Click here to access the full 12-part script of It's Your Business Radio Drama.