The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Clear Channel Outdoor Americas Launch New Billboard Campaign Timed with National Missing Children’s Day
Images of local missing Texas children will appear on digital billboards across Texas beginning May 25, 2016
New York, NY and Houston, Texas – Today the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) Texas Center for the Missing (TCM) and Clear Channel Outdoor Americas (CCOA) (NYSE: CCO), subsidiary of iHeartMedia Inc., participated in press events throughout major Texas markets to launch a new digital billboard campaign calling attention to the ongoing searches for local missing children. Some families of missing children, along with local law enforcement working these unsolved cases, spoke at press events throughout the state today and urged the public to share any information they have regarding the disappearance or whereabouts of these children by calling 1.800.THE.LOST (1.800.843.5678).
Timed to begin with National Missing Children’s Day (May 25), and running through June, CCOA will display images of missing children from Austin, Greenville, El Paso, and Spring, Texas on the company’s digital billboards across the state.
This builds on last year’s highly visible “Summer of Hope” initiative, a national digital out of-home campaign, that called attention to the plight of missing children and their families and reminded everyone you “don’t have to wait 24 hours to report a missing kid.”
The country is in the midst of a persistent missing and exploited children crisis nationwide, with the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) reporting over 460,500 entries for missing children in 2015, on par with reports of missing children made to law enforcement in 2014. Specifically, the Texas Department of Public Safety Missing Persons Clearinghouse received 57,810 missing person reports in 2015, 46,121 of which were juveniles.
“Public safety, and child safety in particular, remains a core tenet of our corporate social responsibility efforts,” said Michelle Costa, regional president, CCOA-Southern. “Our digital billboards have the ability to reach passersby in high-traffic areas as they are out and about. We hope our efforts can play a role in reuniting these children with their families.”
According to NCMEC, photos are one of the most vital tools for law enforcement when searching for a missing child, and have the power to produce leads that can help law enforcement give families’ answers and help safely recover children. The new billboard campaign enables NCMEC and TCM to reach a broad audience across Texas by distributing photos of missing children in targeted areas that can aid law enforcement with a search.
“National Missing Children’s day is an important day that signifies hope in finding our nations missing children.” said Nancy Rodill acting Executive Director, Texas Regional Office. “We know that photos bring missing children home and we rely on our partners like Clear Channel Outdoor Americas to help us in our mission. We are grateful to them for the continued support to find missing children and helping to reunite them with their families.”
For regional missing children alerts http://www.missingkids.com/RSS
About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is the leading 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and resource center providing services for law enforcement, families and the public to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation and prevent child victimization. Designated by Congress to serve as the nation’s clearinghouse on these issues, NCMEC operates a hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678), and has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 218,000 children. NCMEC also operates the CyberTipline, a mechanism for reporting suspected child pornography, child sex trafficking and other forms of child sexual exploitation. Since it was created in 1998, more than 7.5 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation have been received, and more than 148 million suspected child pornography images have been reviewed. NCMEC works in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. To learn more about NCMEC, visit www.missingkids.com. Follow NCMEC on Twitter and like NCMEC on Facebook.
For more information, please contact:
NCMEC Media
media@ncmec.org
703.837.6111
About Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.
Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc., (NYSE: CCO) is one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies, with more than 625,000 displays in over 35 countries across five continents, including 43 of the 50 largest markets in the United States. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings offers many types of displays across its global platform to meet the advertising needs of its customers. This includes a growing digital platform that now offers over 1,050 digital billboards across 28 markets in North America. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings’ International segment operates in 22 countries across Asia, Australia and Europe in a wide variety of formats. More information is available at www.clearchanneloutdoor.com www.clearchannelinternational.com.
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For more information, please contact:
Jason D. King
212.812.0064
jasondking@clearchannel.com
