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Social advertising campaigns make up constitute one of the most important part of social advertising. The main aim of social advertising is to build awareness of the social problems and to motivate people to undertake socially desirable actions through the use of media. In figurative meaning, social advertising hits both head and mainly heart. People should feel a responsibility to change their behavior. Social advertising has nothing to do with a product sale or with a service sale, as it is the case of commercial advertising, that forces customers to buy something although they do not really need it. That is one of the main reason why I have decided to choose just the topic of social advertising, as it is based on a totally different principle. The topic of social advertising seems to be a broad term, as it covers really vast numbers of social problems

Social advertising is related to ethics. Therefore, social advertising campaigns cannot exceed the boundaries of ethical standards. These standards arise from the Code of Ethics, which is the fundamental pillar on which stands social advertising. The meaning of decency, truth and social responsibility is always required. The phenomenon of social advertising is also closely linked with the field of psychology and sociology. Psychology affects people’s behavior and emotions. Emotions influence the way of the human minds which results in a change of people’s behavior. There are many emotional appeals which need to be incorporated into the advertisements. Sociology deals with social life of individuals, groups or societies, and it is just social advertising that serves as means to get the message to a target group.

It could be said that social advertising is a ‘‘younger sister‘‘ of commercial advertising, which is one of the tools of marketing communication mix. Social advertising identifies social problems and it informs about them, but it does not try to offer immediate solutions. Social advertising does not promote any products, firms or services; its main goal is to evoke a sense of responsibility or to make people do a change in their behavior and attitudes.

Social advertising aims several objectives; it mainly tries to inform the public about the problems occurring around us. Obviously, there is an appropriate way to communicate the unknown, sensitive or taboo topics towards the target audience. Another goal of social advertising is to highlight terrible consequences of certain situations or phenomena, sometimes with the use of shocking and very realistic way, other times with the use of irony and humor; thereby altering social behavior, beliefs and attitudes. Social advertising should also help raise public awareness of the existence of non-profit organizations, their activities, their kind of functions, etc.

Success and effectiveness of social advertising depends on understanding the target group and creator’s image of the viewer to whom the message is presented for. It is needed to understand the motives leading a man to a certain behavior and also his actions, and what are the values that a man recognizes.