The Irish government has responded with several public-service campaigns, and, recently, the number of car-crash deaths has decreased.

For example, Clear Channel Radio, in support of Unicef, began a public-service campaign yesterday on its more than 1,200 stations.

In addition, the networks will create advertising to encourage designated drivers and will blend them into their continuing public-service campaigns.

In the advertising industry's first comprehensive study of public-service campaigns, researchers have found that television commercials can induce striking changes in people's behavior regarding health.

That makes the medium an even bigger supporter of public-service campaigns than newspapers, which contributed $21.2 million in space in 1998.

The commercials, which the partnership began offering last month to television networks and stations, are part of a new public-service campaign against heroin use.

"It is probably the most ambitious public-service campaign we've ever conducted," she said.

This week the video business kicked off an ambitious public-service campaign but not everyone is in step.

That makes it "critical to us as a society that public-service campaigns catch on and catch on quickly to this new way of communicating."

The commercials are part of a public-service campaign against heroin use that was introduced last month.