Awareness

== Overview ==
Awareness in general means having knowledge about a certain situation or fact. In terms of raising awareness, it refers to alerting the public that an issue exists.
== Definition and History ==
Raising awareness is usually the first step toward change. Most often, advocacy groups will use awareness campaigns to inform the public or to justify a particular event. Note that awareness campaigns are only informative; they do not encourage people to take action (see advocacy), but may cause them to take action inadvertently. Throughout history, public awareness campaigns have been very successful in educating the public especially when the topic being addressed is presented graphically and explains the consequences if people do not change their ways. For example, one of the most successful campaigns was a series of anti-tobacco commercials that showed the horrors of smoking on the body. However, there are also critics of raising awareness that claim it does nothing and are annoyed by the bombardment of awareness ribbons, posters, social media posts, etc. Despite this, awareness campaigns do seem to be effective when made for the right audience. This audience should either be completely unfamiliar with the topic or just need a reminder to keep making a difference (kind of like an advertisement). Awareness campaigns are often made by an advertising agency, but they still require sound engineering to effectively communicate their message.
== Examples ==
Terrie's Tip Ad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zWB4dLYChM)
This is one of many commercials from the anti-smoking campaign entitled Tips From Former Smokers. It raises awareness about the terrible things that could happen to you if you keep smoking.
Some more examples from advertisements:
== Resources and Further Reading ==
A Beginner’s Guide to Scaling an Awareness Campaign - By: Allison Gauss
This is a blog post about things to consider when making an awareness campaign. It specifically focuses on finding an audience, visibility, creating a knowledge gap, and ways to make your campaign even more effective.
http://www.classy.org/blog/a-beginners-guide-to-scaling-an-awareness-campaign/
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What Good Is ‘Raising Awareness?’ - By: Julie Beck
This article questions the effectiveness of awareness campaigns in actually helping out the cause they are promoting. It also talks about how the U.S. has various “awareness days” and what their role is in raising awareness.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/what-good-is-raising-awareness/391002/
FrameWorks Institute (www.frameworkinstitute.org)
This is a website that conducts research on communications and social issues to help nonprofit organizations better their awareness campaigns. It includes many resources such as an extensive list of issues and ways to make a successful campaign for each. 
== Keywords ==
Advertisments
Advocacy
Audience
Sound Engineering
== Citations ==
Bogdan. "30 Examples Of Awareness Campaigns." Top Design Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
Singal, Jesse. "Awareness Is Overrated." Science of Us. N.p., 17 July 2014. Web. 02 Nov. 2015.
Category:Keyword