Industry Launches Publicity Campaign

CHEMICAL BUSINESS

The American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry's main trade association, launched a public relations campaign last week that is intended to improve the public's opinion of the industry by raising awareness of its contributions to modern life.

Several years in the making, the campaign is built around the phrase "essential₂," which is coupled with other words to create expressions such as essential₂-progress. It includes advertising, a new website, and employee communications, and it will cost $35 million over two years, the association says. The campaign's most expensive component, television advertising, started last week.

Michael E. Campbell, CEO of Arch Chemicals and chairman of ACC's board, introduced the campaign at a press conference in New York City last week. "The initiative makes use of 'essential₂' as an homage to the traditional display of a chemical compound formula," he said.

Robert L. Wood, CEO of specialty chemical maker Chemtura, helped rally the industry to launch the initiative. He said he hopes the campaign will "bridge the gap between Americans' minimal knowledge of our industry and the real meaning and impact of chemistry in their everyday lives."

In conjunction with the essential₂ campaign, ACC released two new statistical indicators developed by economist Martha G. Moore that are intended to highlight the chemical industry's importance to the U.S. economy.

One--the Chemical Production Regional Index or CPRI--measures the industry's output in seven U.S. regions that are home to the largest producers. The other, called ChemFactor, is an indicator measuring the chemical content of various goods and items. Paints, for example, have ChemFactors of 100, tires have a factor of 62, and paper has a factor of 26.