The Ad Council announced at the National Association of Broadcasters Show that the organization will run a new mobile digital television campaign to inform viewers that ?Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving.?

The nonprofit organization will run this campaign on mobile devices surrounding the July 4 holiday, when drunk driving fatalities spike. The Ad Council is making an effort to reach the younger demographics and raise public awareness about the issue.

?We expect that the results of the showcase and in particular, the results of the Project Roadblock campaign, will provide compelling data that demonstrates the power of mobile DTV to engage with views and mobile DTV advertising to influence behavior,? said Abby Auerbach, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at the Television Bureau of Advertising, New York.

The Ad Council is a private organization that uses advertising, communication industries and other forms of media to facilitate the improvement of issues such as quality of life for children, environmental preservation, preventative health, education and community well-being.

The Open Mobile Video Coalition represents nearly 900 TV stations nationwide to accelerate the development of mobile digital TV with a voluntary association of TV broadcasters.

The Television Bureau of Advertising is a nonprofit trade association with members of TV broadcast groups, advertising sales reps, syndicators, international broadcasters, associate members and more than 600 individual TV stations to benefit platforms to the advertising community while also developing advertising dollars for U.S. Spot Television to make the best use of local television.

TBA vs. DUI
For six years, the Ad Council partnered with the Television Bureau of Advertising and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to create ?Project Roadblock? in an effort to use the power of local broadcast TV to fight drunk driving.

Here is a screen grab of the "Drunk Driving is Buzzed Driving" mobile campaign:

Over the years, broadcasters have participated in building public awareness for a wide range of campaigns through public service announcements and will now be making the jump to mobile DTV in an effort to reach all viewers, while at the same time offering a wide variety of advertising options.

Hundreds of local broadcast TV stations donated airtime between Christmas and New Year?s Eve to last year?s ?roadblock,? which reached stations in media markets that represented more than 99 percent of the country.

?The three creative elements will be ?Buzzed Driving? mobile cast PSAs [public service announcements], channel-change interstitials and channel-guide banners,? Ms. Auerbach said.

The mobile TV ads are first being tested on consumers in Washington to provide qualitative feedback to Harris Interactive?s Early Adopter Community and Rentrak?s TV Essentials.

?As the marketing association of local broadcast TV stations, it is our desire to use TVB?s Project Roadblock campaign ? which uses Ad Council?s ?Buzzed Driving? creative ? to develop an advertising case study using stations? mobile DTV assets,? Ms. Auerbach said.