Jehovah’s Witnesses

For Immediate Release
November 25, 2002

A simple message gets acclaim

The international Aurora Award competition this year recognized the 30-second public service announcement (PSA) “Love Your Children,” produced by Jehovah’s Witnesses. The PSA received the Gold Award in two categories, Public Service/Non-profit Sponsor and Public Relations/Awareness.

The stated purpose of the Aurora Awards is to recognize those in the film and video industries whose achievements “captivate their audiences with displays produced from their own creative forces.” It is an international competition, with entries coming from across the United States and other countries, including Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong and Mexico.

“Love your children; the message is that simple,” explains William Van De Wall, chairman of the United States branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the United States the 30-second PSA has already aired over 4,500 times on television by more than 50 network affiliates including nine stations that broadcast to four of the top ten viewer areas. Van De Wall also commented, “In times marked by insecurity and fear, it seemed appropriate to remind viewers of the foundation blocks the Bible lays down for a strong and healthy family life. One of those is found in Titus 2:4, which simply admonishes parents to ’love their children.’” The PSA gets back to basics, emphasizing that a parent’s love for a child is powerfully expressed just by taking the time to talk, to listen, to care.

How useful is the message? Following the 9/11 tragedies, Dr. Caroly Pataki of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute wrote: “It is not difficult to imagine the helplessness, fear, sense of loss, and distress experienced by a child after a direct trauma such as the death of a parent. Even indirect exposure to a trauma, however, such as hearing about the terrorist attack in a far away city, can evoke intense emotional responses in children. . . [who] will most likely check parent or teacher responses in order to regulate their own emotions.”

The “Love Your Children” PSA is the second in the series Love Builds Happy Families. The third, “Teach Your Children,” was recently released and is now being aired in various parts of the United States.

Contact: J. R. Brown, telephone: (718) 560-5600