Carlotta

OT but while I was digging for an AA subway ad, I found that one ROFLMAO
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_STrqAV4Zic...1600/Drunk.jpg

FlyerFan

Well I can't really give a solid answer here because only Bill W. knows the full intent of this tradition. But I think when they say they promote attraction rather then promotion they want people to SEE that the program in action rather then go out telling people why they should join. I never even thought about AA or considered it until I met someone else who casually mentioned they were in the program and I could see that they were happy and sober. That's what made me want to try it.

IOAA2

In casual conversation, lets say at the check out at a supermarket. I can tell someone I’m in AA and give my name if desired. I cannot say Charlie over there is also. I believe I could go on a radio talk show and talk about my alcoholic experiences and AA helped me get sober without telling my name. TV is different and I believe it’s against the traditions because if I were to slip it could be: look at him, AA does not work.

It also helps to keep our ego in check.

BE WELL

Longpasttime

I heard one on the radio that I thought was just awful in terms of production. It was a hispanic sounding gentleman saying that he had thought AA was just for white people and couldnt believe the miracle was racist. So he was defiant, joined and had success. Just thought it was a pathetic PC strawman setup and really lame. I guess if it gets some people in that wouldnt have though..

Longpasttime

Dup post

anattaboy

Not a bad Idea. Something legitimate should be done with the immense stockpile of cash they have from the baskets. Bill thought of almost everything. Possibly the trusted servants could be trusted to hire analysts to best approach the issue.

Fly N Buy

There are indeed PSA's that are played....

Bill W on this very topic:

We are trying our best to reach more of those 25 million alcoholics
who today inhabit the world. We have to reach them directly and
indirectly. In order to accomplish this it will be necessary that
understanding of A.A. and public good will towards A.A. go on
growing everywhere. We need to be on even better terms with medicine,
religion, employers, governments, courts, prisons, mental
hospitals, and all those conducting enterprises in the alcohol field.
We need the increasing good will of editors, writers, television, and
radio channels. These publicity outlets—local, national, and international—should
be opened wider and wider, always foregoing,
however, high pressure promotion tactics. It is to, and through, all
these resources that we must try to carry A.A.’s message to those
who suffer alcoholism and its consequences. (A.A. Service
Manual/Twelve Concepts for World Service, p. 49).

With our Traditions as the foundation, PSAs can be constructed
to show that A.A. is local.

In seeking to have public service announcements aired, you may telephone
the broadcast station’s community relations or public service
person, program director or general manager, and ask if you may personally
deliver to them a recorded or videotaped public service
announcement—even if you are told to simply mail the material to a
particular individual, contact the person. Explain who you are, making
it clear you are a volunteer. To identify yourself as an A.A. member is not
breaking the anonymity Traditions.

keithj

Off topic, but GSO currently has less than a year's operating expenses in their prudent reserve fund. They run about a 20% annual deficit between operating expenses and donations from the groups, which has resulted in increasing literature prices for the past few years. Most meetings run on a shoestring budget that barely covers the rent and coffee costs.

larrylive

I have heard/seen both radio and television ads.

So it seems people get uptight with the "attraction rather than promotion" piont. There seems to be some confusion on the differences. Attraction certainly is not sitting in a basement hoping a drunk stumbles in, (and then insisting they do things not in the BB)

Promotion includes; -increasing demand for the product or service (God forbid)
-differentiateing the product or service, certainly this has not
happened, atleast not in my experience.
This is where tradition 11 comes in with maintaining PERSONAL anonymity, at the level of PRESS, RADIO, and FILM. No one represents AA, famous or not. Besides what is Public Relations, if not "advertising". The founders certainly realized the importance of getting the word out, but they were also wise enough to foresee self-serving attitudes
running rampant should someone fancy themselves the spokes-person of such an amazing program.

This response keeps generating the thought of the 12th step. so if you are not making commercials, how exactly do you carry the message? (The term "carry" implies movement, one does not carry while seated.)