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Before she spent a decade running the Advertising Council, long before she turned a graduate degree in religious studies into a program for people figuring out what comes next, Ruth Wooden was selling cat food.
Ruth talks with Eric about her path from brand management at Ralston Purina to the biggest stage in public service advertising, where she helped put campaigns like the seatbelt safety “crash test dummies” and some of the earliest domestic violence awareness work in front of nearly every American. Those of us working in cause communications today owe a true debt of thanks to Ruth, who was using communications to improve the lives of millions of people before many of our colleagues were even born.
She talks about leaving advertising to run Public Agenda, a detour onto Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign, and what sent her back to school in her sixties for a master’s degree in religious studies at Union Theological Seminary.
Ruth also gets into her complicated feelings about philanthropy: the money sitting unused in donor-advised funds, what she thinks foundations get wrong about income inequality, and why she believes the sector’s next big idea might be a much smaller one.
Recorded just days before her 80th birthday, this is a conversation with someone who has spent half a century thinking about how to connect with her audiences, served on more nonprofit boards than she can count along the way, and still hasn’t slowed down.
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Credits
- Co-hosts: Eric Brown and Kirk Brown
- Guest: Ruth Wooden
- Theme music: John Allee
Guest
- Ruth Wooden, facilitator of the Encore Transition Program at Union Theological Seminary; former President of Public Agenda; former President and CEO of The Advertising Council
Her path
- The Advertising Council: https://www.adcouncil.org
Campaigns mentioned
- Smokey Bear: https://smokeybear.com
- The Ad Council’s seatbelt safety “crash test dummies” campaign, Vince and Larry PSA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_8hkdZkF7Q
Her encore chapter
- Union Theological Seminary: https://utsnyc.edu
- The Encore Transition Program: https://utsnyc.edu/life/institutes/encore-transition-program/
Our sponsors
- Prebys Foundation: https://www.prebysfdn.org
- Stop & Talk podcast: https://stopandtalkpodcast.com
- Stupski Foundation: https://stupski.org
- Break Fake Rules podcast: https://stupski.org/break-fake-rules/
- Lumina Foundation: https://www.luminafoundation.org
- Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Talent podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/todays-students-tomorrows-talent/id1450274364
Let’s Hear It: https://letshearitcast.com
