Draftfcb Tries Two-Pronged Strategy for Census | Adweek Draftfcb Tries Two-Pronged Strategy for Census | Adweek

Draftfcb Tries Two-Pronged Strategy for Census


The U.S. Census Bureau is launching a $133 million campaign next week that urges the American public to participate by completing and sending back the 10-question forms they'll receive in the mail.

"One of the primary goals for our advertising and outreach campaign is to increase the number of people who mail back their forms when they arrive in March," said Census Bureau director Robert Groves during a presentation in Washington, D.C., today. "For each percentage point increase in the national mail-back response rate, the Census Bureau saves taxpayers about $80-90 million in costs associated with having to send census takers to non-responding households for in-person interviews."


One ad, for example, tells viewers that when they take 10 minutes to fill out the questionnaire, they help get their communities what they need for the next 10 years. Another asks, "If we don't know how many kids there are, how do we know how many classrooms we need?"

The second series of commercials is a humor-driven flight directed by Christopher Guest that stars Ed Begley Jr. as a director who wants to film the entire population of the country. "We're going to take a snapshot of America," he tells his crew, as staffers around him ask themselves, "Isn't that what the Census is doing?" Additional Guest regulars appear, including Jennifer Coolidge and Bob Balaban.



