Ad Council Uses Social Media Stars In Its “Creators For Good” Initiative. And They’re Making A Difference.

The Advertising Council (aka Ad Council) is a non-profit organization started way back in 1941 that’s known for its socially-conscious public service announcements. Back in April 2015, the org that’s been behind such iconic, altruistic, and informative figures and campaigns as Smokey Bear, McGruff the Crime Dog, Nancy’s Reagan’s “Just Say No,” and Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” launched Creators For Good, a program that leverages the influence of  YouTube and social media stars in order to move the needle on important social issues. 19 months later, Creators For Good is making some serious noise.

At the Ad Council’s annual Public Service Award Dinner held at the iconic Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria, the nonprofit feted some of its creative partners and recognized the important work they’ve done across multiple campaigns.

While many Creators For Good videos have raised awareness for the issues they represent, a recent addition to the initiative provides a particularly compelling case study. In October 2015, the Ad Council launched its #IAmAWitness campaign, in which social media stars urged their fans to be a lot nicer to each other online and call out the haters. One of the stars of that campaign is YouTuber Lizzie Velasquez (pictured above with the host of the PSA Dinner, James Corden), who’s prominently featured in a video about cyberbullying along with names like Grace Helbig, Ricky Dillon, Trevor Moran, and more prominent YouTube stars.

As part of #IAmAWitness initiative, the Ad Council launched an eye-shaped emoji, which it hoped to put into use as a means of identifying online bullying when and where it happens. Creators raised awareness for the emoji at the the 2016 edition of VidCon

, and their fans latched onto it.

The roughly drawn, purple, always-open eye has been shared more than 164,000 times since, and content related to the emoji’s generated 1.4 billion impressions and 26 million video views. What’s more is a year and a month after the campaign’s launch, the Ad Council reports that one in four teens now link the eye-shaped symbol to bullying.

“We have had the honor of partnering with the Ad Council for a several campaigns, but our involvement with their anti-bullying movement has been one that has really shifted our approach to dealing with online ‘trolls’,” said Erin Ward and Joslyn Davis of ClevverTV, who participated in the #IAmAWitness campaign. “Thanks to their eye emoji initiative, we can now empower our audience to silence cyber bullies by using just one single emoji that already exists in their keyboard. Instead of opening up the comments for more ‘haters’ to join in, the eye emoji calls out the perpetrator and disarms their attack. It’s a small act that can have a big impact.”

Creators for Good has already done strong work and its impact is still resonating, so subscribe to the Ad Council YouTube channel to see how it develops. You can also keep an eye on this blog, where we frequently report on new PSAs within the campaign as they launch.