Book Reviews
How Public Service Advertising target audiences through various media,
Works
Judie Lannon (ed.) (2008)
WARC, £32
DOI: 10.2501/S0265048709090507
How Public Service Advertising Works
was commissioned by the Central
Office of Information (COI) to show-
case exemplary public service cam-
paigns and crystallise the learning
about what makes these campaigns
effective. It reviews a range of cases
that have been winners of the Institute
of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA)
Effectiveness Awards. Considerable
public expenditure is allocated to
advertising campaigns to address social
problems or challenges ranging from
drink driving, drug abuse and domes-
tic abuse to army and police force
recruitment. This book goes some
way to convincing the reader that the
money spent on these campaigns is
well spent. However, most striking is
the depth of learning and expertise
accrued by the practitioners who ana-
lyse these difficult communications
problems and craft the campaigns to
change our behaviour. Edited by Judie
Lannon, the book is primarily the work
of senior planners, many of whom have
played leading roles in the advertising
industry and boast an impressive list
of accolades. The book also includes
contributions from Matthew Parris
(journalist), Professor Geoffrey Beattie
(psychologist) and Jeremy Bullmore
(ex-creative director).
Fourteen chapters split into six parts
consider issues including the objec-
tives of public service campaigns, the
challenges­ of identifying and engaging­
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IJA_28(1).indb 181
developing creative ideas to overcome
barriers, and measuring effectiveness.
There is a strong practical thrust to
all the chapters; most of them review
a selection of cases to illustrate the
practical communications challenges
that arise when planning public serv-
ice campaigns, and demonstrate how
research and established knowledge
inform the solutions. The accounts of
what works and why are vibrant and
succinct. Many of the contributions are
grounded in current marketing ideas;
government departments are recog-
nised to be part of networks, seeking
relationships with empowered citizens,
sometimes by harnessing the assets of
partner organisations. Further, analy-
sis of the communication problems
– the need to change people’s feelings,
attitudes and behaviour – draw on
theoretical models (e.g. the Theory of
Planned Behaviour, the Health Belief
Model, reference group influence)
from consumer sciences to generate
and inform solutions.
Given that this book looks back
on 25 years of public service adver-
tising, it is not surprising that the
long-established theories have been
widely applied, but thinking is by
no means limited to these explana-
tions. Geoffrey Beattie’s chapter links
new psychological research, including
neuro­science, to public service cam-
paigns to advance explanations of how
the functioning of the brain influences
people’s responses. In contrast to the
psychological perspective, Vallence
and Harris point to ‘what people do
with advertising’, proposing that with
the reversal of authority in society, it
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 IJA, 2009, 28(1), ADVERTISING in east asia SPECIAL ISSUE
is the ways in which individuals talk
about the message with their family
and peers that give it meaning and
momentum, and create proximal social
pressure that government cannot hope
to achieve. Here is the acknowledge-
ment that citizens are active interpre-
tants of messages, that they co-create
the meaning of messages and brands.
The merit of this book is in the
expertise that it captures, which com-
bines extensive practical experience
with contemporary marketing thought
and theories of behaviour change. By
straddling the practitioner–academic
divide, this progressive book will be
a valuable educational resource for
teachers, students and practitioners.
It will be a stimulating read for all those
involved in developing public com-
munication campaigns. It is also a rich
source of case studies for teaching and
learning about not-for-profit commu-
nications; there are thought-provoking
lessons to be learned by contrasting
these public service campaigns with
commercial ones, by considering how
to sell social rather individual benefits,
and how to persuade people to desist
from, rather than indulge, in the things
that they most enjoy.
Sally Hibbert
Nottingham University Business School
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IJA_28(1).indb 182
Grown Up Digital: How the Net
Generation is Changing Your
World
Don Tapscott (2008)
McGraw-Hill Professional, £15.99
(Hardback)
DOI: 10.2501/S0265048709090490
The introduction to Grown Up Digital,
where Don describes his children and
their innate familiarity with technology,
makes me feel somewhat nostalgic as
he is in effect describing aspects of my
own childhood. I am towards the older
end of the ‘Net Generation’ described
within Grown Up Digital, with the very
eldest reaching the age of 31 in 2008.
I grew up in the days before Google
and in a time where online games sites
requested their users to click on banner
ads to top up their play time, and these
memories are ingrained in my current
behaviour and media consumption. So
much so that, even in formal settings,
I naturally address people by their first
name as this is the norm online and,
after years of playing MMORPGs, I
can’t play single-player games without
feeling somewhat lonely.
Don’s previous book, Growing Up
Digital (1997), laid many foundations
for this iteration a full ten years on.
Many of the characteristics of the Net
Generation he described have since
been substantiated by how society has
evolved over the last decade. In 1997
Don predicted, among other things,
that widespread access to digital media
would redefine not only the media
landscape but also politics, educa-
tion and the working environment. I
believe, however, that although in part
these things have already happened,
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