2010 "Best of Silver Anvil Award" Winner: U.S. Air Force

The PRSA 2010 Silver Anvil Awards podcast series features finalists from this year's program. The Silver Anvil Award recognizes complete public relations programs incorporating measurable and sound research, planning, execution and evaluation. These four areas represent the solid criteria by which senior practitioners judge each entry to ensure it meets the highest standards of performance in the profession. 

 

Listen in as Deb Radman, APR, PRSA Fellow, speaks with Christy Nolta, deputy director for Air Force Public Affairs, about the “A Solemn View: Public Affairs Provides a Window to American Service Members Ultimate Sacrifice” campaign.

 

After an 18-year ban on media coverage, America was offered a solemn view of “dignified transfers,” where our service members killed in combat are returned to American soil. In February 2009, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced a new policy allowing media to cover dignified transfers with permission from family members. Despite little lead time, a group of Air Force Public Affairs professionals developed a people-focused media program that honored the fallen and cared for their families, while simultaneously providing media the opportunity to cover this solemn process and provide transparency into the human cost of war.

 

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) presented the Air Force with its “Best of Silver Anvil Award” for its program to facilitate media coverage of flag-draped coffins bearing the remains of U.S. service personnel arriving at Dover Air Force Base. More than 20 members of the Air Force, including the Honorable Erin C. Conaton, undersecretary of the Air Force, were on hand to accept the award at PRSA’s Silver Anvil Awards ceremony, held Thursday, June 3, 2010, at the Equitable Tower in New York.