New Radio Ads Aimed At Draft Non-Registrants

The Selective Service System this summer initiated a radio publicity drive which one official said is more directed at men who have illegally refused to register for the draft than previous advertising campaigns.

Michael G. Carberry, executive vice-president of the advertising agency which produced the radio spots, said this week that the public service announcements were purposefully directed at non-registrants.

"Selective Service wanted the ads targeted more towards those who are supposed to have registered but haven't," said Carberry. "There's a subtle shift of direction," he added.

Natural Strategy

Carberry noted that the change was a natural advertising strategy. "You always go for the general group first and then go after the special groups," he said.

Joan Lamb, director of public affairs for the Selective Service, however denied that the ad campaign represented a change in emphasis or intensity in the bureau's efforts to register men for the draft. Lamb explained that the radio campaign was simply a part of the bureau's annual change in publicity campaigns.

The radio public service announcements were sent to 7500 radio stations across the country during June and July, said Carolyn Boswell, an official of the bureau.

Lamb added that over 700 radio stations have confirmed they are airing the announcements and speculated that more are using them but have not returned response cards.

An informal telephone poll of 17 local radio stations found only two, WBOS and WMBR, had run the ads this summer.

"We ran two or three of them for a month," said Jennifer Jordan. WBOS public service director, adding. "It gets down to politics. I don't want a draft but I do want a strong military. I believe the military has a right to the airwaves."

Subversive Compliance

MIT's WMBR ran the ads a few times this summer, but altered them to seem "as subversive as possible," said Chuck Warner, WMBR's public service announcements director.

"We added ultra-patriotic music to make them campy. In strict terms what we did was add 'musical bedding' which is standard procedure with public service announcements," Warner said. "It was some pretty wild bedding for draft ads though," he added.

Most of the stations said that they chose not to run the ads because they prefer public service announcements of local origin.

Steven R. Swartz '84 news director of Harvard radio station WHRB said than WHRB had not run the ads.

"I'm not even sure if we received them," Swartz said, "but our general policy with military public service announcements is not to run them."

Valley Girls

The package of 30- and 60-second public service announcements include segments recorded by college football star Herschel Walker and actor Richard Montalban as well as a parody of the "valley girl" fad.

A similar series of television public service announcements will be sent to TV stations this January, Lamb said.

SSS does not pay for sit time. By law, radio and television stations are required an allot certain amount of air time to public service announcements.

The new ad campaign hit the airwaves two months before SSS began sending out draft cards that can serve as proof of registration.

The new draft cards, which have down criticism from anti-draft groups around the country, are printed at the are printed at the bottom of registration letters sent to young men who sign up with SSS. They can be clipped out and carried in a wallet.

Lamb said that the voluntary cards were not part of a plan to introduce mandatory cards in the future. She added that the introduction of the cards and the radio and television camp.

The Solomon Amendment requires students to prove they have registered in order to receive federal financial aid. A bureau spokesman said that nearly 11 million men, 98.7% of those eligible, have registered.

Unlike the draft cards distributed during the Vietnam War, the new ones do not have to be carried at all times.

David Affler, of the Boston Alliance against Registration and the Draft said, "sure carrying the new cards is voluntary, but the government is trying to get people accustomed to carrying draft cards around again. It's a step towards making them mandatory."