A billboard campaign started by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was launched on August 12. The billboards featured the faces of missing children, such as Sarah and Jacob Hoggle, who have been missing since September 7th, 2014.
The campaign is referred to as the “Summer of Hope,” and was designed to spread the word about young children who have been reported missing. The plan is to distribute these advertisements to the D.C. and Baltimore area, and then spread the campaign to the rest of the country. The ads will be shown in 50 Metro stations in D.C., and 14 shelters and billboards in Baltimore.
Recent research by OTX, a global consumer research and consulting firm, showed that 63% of adults find that advertising on digital signage catches their attention. This is what the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are counting on.
“Now that I’m not capable of being out there on TV every day. I’m back at work. I’m capable of keeping it out there the way that I am, this really helps,” says Troy Turner, the father of Sarah and Jacob Hoggle. Turner expresses how grateful he is for the campaign, “The fact that it’s a national campaign also helps since we have leads all over the place.”
Bethesda Magazine reports that the mother of the children, Catherine Hoggle, has been placed in a mental hospital for schizophrenia. Though she has been charged with abducting the kids, Hoggle has not provided the police with any information on their whereabouts.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported that there were over 460,000 missing children claims made to the U.S. police in the last year.
The billboards are expected to stay up throughout all of August. In the coming weeks, the campaigns is expected to spread across other major cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles.