Public service announcement

Oftentimes these messages feature unsettling imagery, ideas or behaviors that are designed to startle or even scare the viewer into understanding the consequences of undergoing a particular harmful action or inaction (such as pictures of drug users before and after their addiction or realistic skits of domestic violence situations) as well as the importance of avoiding such choices.

Its first campaigns focused on the country's needs during World War II, such as encouraging the American public to invest their savings in government bonds.

In the UK, they were produced for the Central Office of Information (COI), and again by private contractors, which were usually small film companies, such as Richard Taylor Cartoons.

Their utility as a cost-free means to fill the gaps in commercial breaks left by unsold advertising airtime has led to their regular usage since the 1960s.

One of the earliest television public service announcements came in the form of Smokey Bear whose "Only you can prevent forest fires" campaign ran for decades.

[6] Other common early themes were traffic safety, especially safe crossing, wearing seat belts and not driving drunk, and the dangers of cigarette smoking.

After My Sister Sam was canceled in 1988, surviving cast members Pam Dawber, Joel Brooks, Jenny O'Hara, and David Naughton were reunited to film a PSA for the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence on gun control after the murder of their co-star, Rebecca Schaeffer, who was gunned down by a crazed fan on July 18, 1989, at Schaeffer's apartment in Los Angeles.

Examples include the closing moral segments at the end of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, the "Knowing is Half the Battle" epilogues in G.I.

PSAs produced by FNM have topics such as dengue fever, drug addiction, environmental pollution, road safety and electricity usage.

Some of their ads also using "Anda Mampu Mengubahnya" ("You Can Make a Difference") slogan and also using some of famous actors and actresses including the late Adibah Noor and Nabil Ahmad.