How Neoliberal Ideas Shaped Public Service Announcements: A Three-Decade Analysis

Media Industry and Consumers 

While traditional advertising is considered a function of capitalism, public service announcements (PSAs) have long been considered a function for the public good, promoting social wellbeing through government and nonprofit messaging.

Historically, PSAs are attributed to Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the U.S., who is also known as the “father of public administration,” as his administration bolstered support for the first World War.

Given their fidelity to the public, PSAs should operate outside of market-driven forces. But new research from the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) reveals how neoliberal ideology — which underscores personal responsibility and free-market solutions while minimizing government oversight — has increasingly infiltrated even these public-interest messages.

Led by Advertising Associate Professor Kasey Windels, the research team analyzed three decades of award-winning PSAs, which should theoretically be less constrained by marketplace demands since award winners are judged on their artistic and creative value.

Their findings showed nearly half of analyzed PSAs contained elements promoting the “entrepreneurial self,” messaging that encourages individuals to engage in behaviors to discipline and improve themselves. And one-third emphasized individual responsibility while ignoring the realms and ramifications of broader sociopolitical systems.

The research showed that this trend of leaning into the “entrepreneurial self” has increased over time. For example, PSAs in the 2020s were significantly more likely to ignore sociopolitical constraints, dissociate identities from historical structures and justify existing systems rather than promoting systemic change. These numbers represent substantial increases from earlier decades when PSAs focused more on the public good and collective action to address societal challenges.

Most concerning to the researchers was the dramatic rise in “hollow diversity” messaging in recent years. They found that 2020s-era PSAs were significantly more likely to present marginalized identities as “individual obstacles to overcome through hard work” while separating social issues from historical and systemic roots.

This “hollow diversity” manifested in various ways, including using marginalized identities as empty symbols of equality, capitalizing on social movements such as #BlackLivesMatter to create brand value, and suggesting that problems associated with identity differences (such as race, sexual orientation or disability) should be overcome through hard work, optimism and personal accountability. The researchers found all six measures of hollow diversity increased significantly in PSAs from the 2020s compared to previous decades.

“PSAs may even provide for a greater opportunity to shape public discourse about the value of neoliberalism,” write the researchers, “as the solutions to social issues espoused through these communications are rooted in the neoliberal regime of truth.”

They suggest that broad social issues become personal problems that are better solved at the individual level, while structural or systemic government solutions are rendered nonviable. This shift reflects a wider ideological trend that places a greater value on privatization, individual action and minimal government intervention — ideals that characterize neoliberalism.

The study concludes that the increasing adoption of neoliberal frameworks used in contemporary PSAs may ultimately undermine their original purpose of serving the public good. PSAs have shifted toward individualistic messaging that aligns with the neoliberal focus on the personal rather than collective (or public) solutions — a shift that could affect how audiences understand and respond to systemic social issues.

The researchers implore marketing professionals to look inward and examine their messaging. They write, “We ask advertisers and advertising researchers to consider neoliberalism along with the kinds of inequalities it produces and ignores.”

The original article, “Agent of Your Own Destiny: How Neoliberal Discourses Permeate Award-Winning Public Service Announcements,” was published in the Journal of Advertising online on Jan. 8, 2024.

 Authors: Kasey Windels, Sophia Mueller, Xiaofan Wei and Huan Chen.

 This summary was written by Gigi Marino.

Posted: December 31, 2024
Insights Categories: Media Industry and Consumers
Tagged as: Huan Chen, Kasey Windels, PSA, Public Service Announcements, Sophia Mueller, Xiaofan Wei