The high passenger traffic that moves through the country's major airports every day makes these locations ideal advertising venues.

The Council on Public Relations looked into the advertising potential for the AVMA and found that airport messaging offers an excellent, cost-effective opportunity for public service advertising. In view of this, the council recommended that the Executive Board approve the use of $17,000 to develop and fund a public service advertising program for veterinary medicine at airports, and the board voted in favor of it.

The public service advertising itself does not carry a cost. Media companies that own and operate the 4-by-5 message dioramas contract with advertising companies to sell paid commercial advertising. Between advertising contracts, however, the advertising companies provide the diorama space to organizations such as the AVMA for public interest messages, because they may not let the diorama space be blank.

The $17,000 in funding will cover design, airport solicitation, printing, distribution, and usage reports. It will enable the AVMA to place an average of five message dioramas in each of 60 or 70 U.S. airports, including the top 50. The passenger volume at airports with message postings is 1.5 million per month.

The AVMA airport advertising program will begin immediately and run through 2004.