Outdoor Media Association donates $120,000 campaign for National Missing Persons Week

An outdoor media campaign for Missing Persons Week, donated by the Outdoor Media Association (OMA) was launched yesterday at NSW Police Force headquarters. The OMA is supporting NSW Police Force and National Missing Persons Week (NMPW), which runs 1-7 August 2010, for the second year, with a $120,000 campaign.

The campaign focuses on Rista Chanthavixay, who was 15 when she went missing in March 2009 in the western suburbs of Sydney. The donated outdoor media includes taxi backs, shopping centre panels and bus shelters in suburbs near where she went missing and bus shelters and free standing panels in the Sydney CBD.

NMPW is an annual event to raise awareness of the issues and impactsassociated with missing people. This year the focus is on Culturallyand Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities with the theme ‘Whensomeone goes missing, a day spent waiting is a day lost’. The theme isa reminder to the community that they shouldn’t wait 24 hours to reportsomeone missing if they fear for the safety of that person.

OMA CEO Charmaine Moldrich said the organisation was proud to support the cause.

“We know that outdoor advertising is a highly visible medium thatreaches people in their communities and our hope is that the message isseen by someone who can help provide the information needed to findRista,” she said.

Each year 35,000 people are reported missing in Australia – one personevery 15 minutes. While 95 per cent of missing persons are found withina short period of time, the lasting impact, particularly on families,is devastating. The reasons for going missing are many and varied andcan include abduction, murder, domestic violence, misadventure,miscommunication, alcohol and illicit drug related problems, familyconflict, mental illness and dementia-related illnesses.