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Why Is The Government Spending Millions Of $ Advertizing For The Census?


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I've always been a little angered when the Government advertizes for things like the Post Office which compete with Private Business. It just offends me a bit. Then the multimillion dollar advertizing budgets for the Armed Forces starts to seem a little odd as well. You're advertizing for the Army?But these Census Ads are completely pointless. First of all they're about as stoopid as any campaign I've ever seen. But on top of that I just don't see the point. Why is it an overall public benefit to make the Census as complete as possible? Why are they spending millions of dollars advertizing for this, not to mention the tens of millions to execute it?Yes, I know that Census data are used to allocate Federal funds, but why the advertizements? Isn't this sort of an antiquated approach?

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"Johnson said the roughly $133 million media effort is part of a $333 million push which includes advertising, public relations, recruitment, census in school, a road tour and the creation and distribution of material, all in service to spreading the word to as many Americans as possible."I like the commercials. And as I just now googled for more information about the census advertising, I found out they are directed by Christopher Guest, who is awesome.Edit: That wasn't supposed to be an answer to your question, just an observation. But I do wonder how much they spent on those postcards that said, "You'll be getting your census forms soon." That seemed dumb.

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Yes, I know that Census data are used to allocate Federal funds, but why the advertizements? Isn't this sort of an antiquated approach?
In Ireland the two biggest provinces were playing each other in rugby. It was in Dublin on the day of the Census. There was a huge scare because Limerick city would lose loads of its funding and be officially downgraded to a town because all the Limerick people would not be there for the Census. Obviously I haven't seen the adds and maybe it differs in America but awareness is important.
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The more people who mail in their census form the better. They have to send out people door to door to the homes of those who don't mail it in so in fact the advertising might save money if enough people are reminded to mail it in over waiting for the door knockers.Edit: I also believe that it's a Constitutional requirement that a census is done every 10 years.

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I've always been a little angered when the Government advertizes for things like the Post Office which compete with Private Business. It just offends me a bit. Then the multimillion dollar advertizing budgets for the Armed Forces starts to seem a little odd as well. You're advertizing for the Army?But these Census Ads are completely pointless. First of all they're about as stoopid as any campaign I've ever seen. But on top of that I just don't see the point. Why is it an overall public benefit to make the Census as complete as possible? Why are they spending millions of dollars advertizing for this, not to mention the tens of millions to execute it?Yes, I know that Census data are used to allocate Federal funds, but why the advertizements? Isn't this sort of an antiquated approach?
It's not just for allocating funds, it's the basis for our proportional representation in congress. It seems obvious to me that it's a public benefit to have accurate representation in congress. I don't know how much it's really worth though, or if the ad campaign is effective. I do feel like the overall awareness level has been raised.
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I'm not going to get all up in arms about waste in government with regards to the census, but I did think it was funny that I got a piece of mail informing me that I would soon be receiving a census form, a census form, and then a letter reminding me to fill out my census form.

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I'm not going to get all up in arms about waste in government with regards to the census, but I did think it was funny that I got a piece of mail informing me that I would soon be receiving a census form, a census form, and then a letter reminding me to fill out my census form.
My wife threw away the first form we received, thinking it was junk mail. I saw the second mailing and filled it out. I have a feeling the multiple mailings really does increase response rate.
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Plus they will be hiring over 1,000,000 people in order to take the census, and Obama will be taking credit for the bump in employment numbers....When I was growing up, my dad was in the Air Force and subscribed to Air Force magazine. There used to be really cool advertisements for missiles and other ways to kill people. I would bet the ad guys really enjoyed coming up with those ad campaigns.When you need to kill your enemy, but you don't want to waste the gas to fly up their tail pipe...The AMRAAM

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There is a person who posts on this site that is being paid ~$15/hr by the census bureau for the next few months. So far all he has done is played on his Iphone in a room with other people.

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I'm sure someone already answered this, but if they get people to send in the form then they don't have to go to your house, saving millions of dollars.

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I'm sure someone already answered this, but if they get people to send in the form then they don't have to go to your house, saving millions of dollars.
I realize the government wastes money, but spending millions of dollars just to get to my house seems like a challenge fit for Montgomery Brewster.
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I realize the government wastes money, but spending millions of dollars just to get to my house seems like a challenge fit for Montgomery Brewster.
It's actually probably tens, if not hundreds, of millions. Obama needs better jobs numbers, and the census will help that. Last month he claimed victory over the recession because 150,000 jobs were created. He forgot to mention that 100k+ of those jobs were government/census jobs.
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It's actually probably tens, if not hundreds, of millions. Obama needs better jobs numbers, and the census will help that. Last month he claimed victory over the recession because 150,000 jobs were created. He forgot to mention that 100k+ of those jobs were government/census jobs.
I was really just making a joke about how you worded your sentence.
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I was really just making a joke about how you worded your sentence.
touche
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It's actually probably tens, if not hundreds, of millions. Obama needs better jobs numbers, and the census will help that. Last month he claimed victory over the recession because 150,000 jobs were created. He forgot to mention that 100k+ of those jobs were government/census jobs.
The labor department recently tried to get some firm numbers as to how many people they actually hired, but the Census bureau was at loss. He said, "I mean, it's alot of people and constantly moving number so it's really tough to be accurate."
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The labor department recently tried to get some firm numbers as to how many people they actually hired, but the Census bureau was at loss. He said, "I mean, it's alot of people and constantly moving number so it's really tough to be accurate."
Glad to see we put the census in the right hands then...
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you'll notice that the jobs numbers for the last few months have been consistently revised upward, wiping out the small negatives we thought initially. things genuinely seem to be looking better in the job market, even in the private sector. and give me a break with this "taking credit" garbage. the census numbers are a temporary, tiny drop in the bucket compared to what Obama's gonna have to make up in his one term to be neutral on jobs.

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I lost my job as a shift leader at Hollywood Video (bankruptcy + massive store closings... anyone surprised?). I heard about the Census jobs and took a test which they use as a means of an application process. The test was quite solid asking some difficult questions testing math skills, administration abilities, etc. From taking a practice test the night before, a little intellect, and a lot of luck, I aced it.About three weeks later, I received a call, had a phone interview, and received a job offer for a position as an administrator in our ridiculously busy LCO (local census office). I have been working this position for a couple weeks now.Everything I have to say is, of course, from my own recent direct experience.

The labor department recently tried to get some firm numbers as to how many people they actually hired, but the Census bureau was at loss. He said, "I mean, it's alot of people and constantly moving number so it's really tough to be accurate."
It is absolutely impossible for anyone to get firm numbers on how many people are hired by the Census. The selection and hiring process has been going on since last year and the number of new hires exponentially grows in very small amounts of time. Especially from at least March 2010 to present date. For the last year, each major community has been building LCO's. This means managers, supervisors, clerks, operations, etc. These specific types of hirings are in constant growth due to the massive amount of personnel we are hiring in field operations. With more people we hire in the field (trainers, crew leaders, etc), we need more people in the office to take care of them. For everything I've mentioned so far, I've only taken us to about March of this year. March to present is an absolute completely separate nightmare. Each office currently has a specific number of enumerators (in the thousands per LCO) that need to be hired over a month and a half stretch of time to reach a major deadline. That doesn't even count the number of people we'll need to hire for those who don't show up, can't work, etc. (the typical HR nightmares times a million). This means that every day we are constantly working our asses off hiring as many QUALIFIED candidates as possible. At what point do you want to try and take a snap shot of the number of people hired by the Census? One month ago? Could be 100,00. Two weeks ago? Could be 120,000. You get my point. For a personal perspective, think of it this way (without me trying to give out too much information that I'm not supposed to be providing). I was hired on to work in payroll, but was trained to assist the selections team. In the two hours they had me assisting them yesterday, I hired 4 new enumerators alone and am awaiting callbacks over the next 48 hours for probably 15 more. A fellow employee hired 23 new enumerators for the entire day. Say this is true, for example (without me actually saying this is true :club: ), we have 6 people working 8 hours a day/7 days a week doing nothing but hiring anywhere between 18-25 new people a day per person. Stretch that across the entire country and you'll understand why the question can't be answered. When would you realistically like your snap shot of people hired by the Census? When the question was asked, the realistic answer should have been "We can respond once the 2010 census process is nearing completion".
There is a person who posts on this site that is being paid ~$15/hr by the census bureau for the next few months. So far all he has done is played on his Iphone in a room with other people.
Personal experiences will often vary due to local circumstances. From my understanding, enumerators are paid for active work done and are recorded in the field. I'm assuming this person is an enumerator based on his pay level (the rest of us with other census jobs don't get nearly as much, but our jobs last longer). Why are they paid so much you ask? Risk. All enumerators have to recognize the dangers of the task they are taking on before they are hired. They must be open to working in ALL kinds of areas with ALL kinds of people. Dog bites, guns pulled on them, etc. From some of the stories I've heard, the pay level is certainly earned. My guess is that this person is involved in the training process if he is in a room playing with his Iphone amongst other enumerators. There is a maximum amount of time that a person is hired for and they will be let go as soon as work availability has diminished. Being hired as an enumerator, it is made clear from the start that there is no guaranteed length of time that you are employed. What I'm trying to point out is that people aren't hired and then get to sit on their butt after the work is done. When there's no work, there's no more job.
They have to send out people door to door to the homes of those who don't mail it in so in fact the advertising might save money if enough people are reminded to mail it in over waiting for the door knockers.
This quote is correct. I apologize that I don't have the sources on hand to back up what I'm about to say, but they're there with a few quick online searches if you would like to see them yourself.The most predictable and common criticism of the Census is the amount of money spent on the pre-mailers and advertisements. There are a few studies that show a couple key points. Advertisements and pre-mailers (the ones you got saying "hey, you're going to get your census forms soon") produce a much higher return rate. The amount of money saved on unnecessary enumeration is much higher then the amount that has been allocated to spend on these advertising efforts. Sorry if this was a long and tedious read, but I felt it was important to comment on how it really works in Census operations. As far as my LCO goes, the people I work with are great. The effort we put in goes above and beyond the average private sector office (from my personal experience, of course). We are focused on getting the job done right and as efficiently as possible. Which is nuts, if you think about it, because we're essentially working ourselves out of a job.Also, for the Obama comments, if you like him or what he's doing in office at the moment, you'll cheer whatever positive job numbers there are. If you don't, you were already going to criticize him for this before it's even happened any way. It would be nice to hear commentary about Obama from people that look at his actions per each situation separately. It's hard to take a person seriously when they tally Obama's scorecard all positive or all negative in every different category involving the office of the presidency.
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Rural Virginia is one part of the country where guns do get pulled routinely on Census takers, which is why I won't be applying for a job with them. [That and the nearest job would be an 80-mile commute.] I'm surviving on freelance work instead.That really was a good post, jmkiser. Thanks for the info.

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