New Ad Council campaign will tout alternatives to the four-year degree. Led by CEOs of Apple and IBM, the project comes from a White House-convened task force on workforce policy.
The Ad Council, which was behind the Smokey Bear and “Just Say No” campaigns for the U.S. government, is set to launch a national advertising promotion for postsecondary education and training alternatives to the four-year college degree.
The “groundbreaking” national campaign will be led by the nonprofit Ad Council in “close association” with IBM, Apple and the White House, the council said.
The ads “will shine a light on how young and working adults can develop the skills in demand for today’s job market,” a council spokeswoman said in a written statement, while also seeking to “raise awareness of the wide variety of educational options available, such as coding bootcamps, on-the-job apprenticeships, certifications, associate’s degrees and more.”
The CEOs of Apple and IBM are helping to steer the campaign as part of their role with the White House-convened American Workforce Policy Advisory Board.
The Trump administration created the 27-member task force in 2018. It’s led by Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a senior adviser to the president, and Wilbur Ross, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.