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Campaign expands to TV
May 22, 2008 10:37 AM
Kids don’t get a second chance. That urgent message, the bottom line of a major radio campaign that started airing on May 1, is also the powerful theme of a television ad campaign that blanketed the metropolitan area starting May 13.
Sponsored by the Keep the Promises Coalition, a group of more than 40 education advocacy groups including the UFT, the million-dollar ad campaign seeks to raise public awareness and activism against budget cuts that would severely hamstring the ability of the city’s public schools to give children a quality basic education.
“We’re asking our kids to meet higher standards at school,” says the announcer as children are shown working hard together in a computer lab. “New York State is keeping its promise to provide an additional $600 million to help them succeed, but New York City wants to take money away — $450 million in funding that it promised our public schools. That money would come right out of the classroom,” he adds as the computers fade to dark.
Kids appear on screen. They are making full use of their school library doing research. The books disappear from the shelves as the kids disappear from the screen.
The announcer acknowledges that economic times are tough, but immediately hits home with the argument that “children won’t get a second chance.” The advertisement closes with an appeal to all residents to “tell the mayor and the council to keep their promise and fund our city schools.”
