DANA POINT, CA, October 14, 2000–Robert L. Wehling, global marketing officer at Procter & Gamble, was honored today with the distinguished Goldstein Award for his tireless work on the Education Excellence Partnership (EEP), which seeks to build broad public support for raising academic standards in American schools to better prepare children for the future. In addition to serving as volunteer campaign advisor to the Partnership, Mr. Wehling is president of the EEP’s board. The Goldstein Award was announced at the Association of National Advertiser’s (ANA) Annual Conference held at The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, California.
"Improving education is clearly one of the most important challenges facing Americans today," noted John J. Sarsen, Jr., ANA president and CEO. "The Goldstein Award serves to recognize the tremendous positive impact that can be achieved when advertisers, agencies and the media work together to bring awareness to key issues." Peggy E. Conlon, president and CEO of The Advertising Council, extended her personal congratulations.
The award helps commemorate Robert Goldstein who was vice president of advertising at The Procter & Gamble Company and a board member of both the ANA and The Advertising Council at the time of his death in 1987.
Mr. Wehling’s involvement with the Education Excellence Partnership has deep roots; he helped The Business Roundtable create the Partnership in 1992. His contacts within and beyond the advertising and media industry have been instrumental in disseminating the Partnership’s message to a broad audience. That includes everything from personally getting commitments for space for print ads to presenting the campaign concepts to key executives at major networks. In addition to working closely with the three agencies – Young & Rubicam, Leo Burnett USA and Saatchi & Saatchi – that contributed their efforts to the campaign, Bob helped open doors for the Partnership’s "Be a Big League Parent" campaign with Major League Baseball. He promotes the Partnership’s efforts at speaking engagements before Governors, teachers, community groups and business leaders across the country. In addition, his close working relationship with members of President Clinton and President Bush’s administrations have helped to win support for the campaign from the U.S. Department of Education.
This year’s winning campaign, the Education Excellence Partnership, focuses on the need for higher academic standards and higher student achievement in our schools. Advertising includes: "When They Grow Up," a series of three: 15 second spots that highlight children’s aspirations ("Sally wants to be a surgeon some day," "Billy wants to work on airplanes"); "Hurdles, which runs under the theme, "Help raise standards in American schools;" "Be a Big League Parent," which encourages parents to get involved in raising academic standards at their children’s schools; and "Minds Like These Deserve to Be Challenged," three :30 second spots that pose provocative questions, such as "What is the opposite of zero?" The spots, and the print ads that complement them, offer a free booklet on raising academic standards in school though a toll-free number (1-800- 38- BE SMART).
This campaign, which received partial Ad Council operating support from IBM Corporation and Texaco, has already made an impact: 49 states have adopted or developed higher academic standards in their public schools.
The Education Excellence Partnership is comprised of The Business Roundtable, Achieve, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Alliance of Business, the National Education Association, the National Governors’ Association and the U.S. Department of Education.
Mr.Wehling’s insights on how to communicate effectively with the public have been honed during a remarkable 40-year career at Procter & Gamble. He began as a brand assistant in 1960, rising through the ranks to brand manager, associate general advertising manager and general marketing services manager. In 1988, Mr. Wehling was appointed vice president-marketing services and in 1990, vice president public affairs – a position that was expanded in 1991 to cover Procter & Gamble Worldwide. Throughout the 1990s, his areas of responsibilities grew to include advertising, market research and government relations.
He is active in a variety of local and national organizations, many of which focus on service to children and education: he serves as a board member of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Cincinnati Mayor’s Commission on Children, and director of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. He also established a Children’s Defense Fund office in Cincinnati. Mr. Wehling has served as vice chairman of the Ad Council from 1994-96, chairman from 1997-98 and honorary chairman from 1998-99. He holds a B.A. from Denison University.
Currently, over 40 campaigns are facilitated by the Ad Council with the help of ANA member companies whose advertising and marketing executives serve as campaign directors. In addition, the companies donate the hours and dollars that go into creating, producing and distributing the campaigns while media donate the time and space to run the ads.
The Association of National Advertisers, Inc. (ANA) is the industry’s premier trade association dedicated exclusively to marketing and brand building. Representing more than 300 companies with 8,000 brands that collectively spend over $100 billion in marketing communications and advertising, the Association’s members market products and services to consumers and businesses. ANA serves the needs of its members by providing marketing and advertising industry leadership in traditional and e-marketing, legislative leadership, information resources, professional development and industry-wide networking.
The Advertising Council, founded in 1942, works with a select number of non-profit organizations that represent socially important and advertiseable issues. Working with volunteer organizations, The Ad Council creates advertising geared to the resolution of social problems with actionable messages. The Council distributes the messages to the media, which donate time and space to run them. In 1995, the Council announced its children’s initiative, which is a ten-year initiative focusing a majority of the Council’s efforts on advertising campaigns that benefit children. In 1999, Ad Council campaigns received more than $1.1 billion in donated media time and space.
