Award Winning Public Education Campaign Of American Speech-Language Hearing Association To Hit Airwaves Anew

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Award Winning Public Education Campaign Of American Speech-Language Hearing Association To Hit Airwaves Anew

2/25/2007


TV, Radio PSAs To Warn About Hearing Loss Risk From
Misuse of Personal Audio Technology

One Depicting A Tattoo Session Gone Bad Uses Humor To Convey A Serious Message

Rockville, MD - January 29, 2007 - In the wake of reports that the 2006 holiday shopping season included record sales of personal audio technology products like the iPod, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has produced and disseminated nationwide television and radio public service announcements (PSAs) about the importance of safeguarding one's hearing when listening to the technology.

Set in a fictionalized tattoo parlor, fifteen and thirty second TV spots depict humorous unintended consequences from listening to an MP3 player at high volume. A young man receives the wrong tattoo due to miscommunication between him and the tattoo artist. The whole time, both are listening to MP3 players set at high volume.

Meanwhile, the radio spots compare the sound levels produced by personal audio technology with that from other sources–a soda can, a tattoo gun, a motorcycle and a chain saw. By doing so, they make a compelling point about the amount of noise that goes into the ear when the technology is played too loudly.

The PSAs are the latest phase of "America: Tuned in Today…But Tuned Out Tomorrow?", an ASHA public education campaign about the potential risk of hearing loss from unsafe usage of personal audio technology.

To date, key campaign elements have included www.listentoyourbuds.org, an interactive bilingual website for young children, parents, and educators; two national polls on usage habits and attitudes and subsequent video news packages; and, a presentation at the first ever national conference on noise induced hearing loss in children. The campaign has drawn global media coverage, and was the reason why ASHA won a 2007 Associations Advance America Award of Excellence from the American Society of Association Executives.