Today I applaud MTV for promoting the use of entertainment to promote social change, a marriage I've been advocating for years, in a very visible way.

MTV Video Music Awards has a new award category this year: Best Video with a Message. AceShowBiz describes it this way:

It's a special category that recognizes artists who use their music videos to send positive messages of empowerment or raise awareness of social issues that youth are dealing with. 

And the messages range from self esteem (Lady Gaga's Born This Way) to domestic violence awareness (Eminem's Love the Way You Lie) to anti-bullying (Taylor Swift's Mean), among others. Big name nominees.

By creating an category for artists doing videos with positive social messages, MTV is bringing "entertainment-education" to a whole new level of credibility. It is clear recognition from within the entertainment industry. 

Now it's up to public health folks and social service agencies involved in these causes to leverage the buzz that this new MTV award will generate. Let's step up and do it!

The U.S. Census bureau is spending $133 million on on their 2010 campaign to get people to fill out and return their census forms. First ad I saw was during the Super Bowl and had some refreshing humor (for a government agency) and even a touch of "duh" style sarcasm. Now I'm seeing their ads in the Olympics coverage.

How do they justify high profile spending that kind of money in the current economy? They make a simple and effective ROI argument: The more people return their forms, the less money is needed for follow-up. Which means millions of dollars go back into local communities. Here's the Bureau's video overview of the campaign including a couple ad excerpts.

I'm glad to see the government using advertising this way. They appear to have a well-integrated marketing communications campaign going. Do the ads motivate you?

More to follow!