12 PSA Video Examples That Changed Behavior

Most people think of PSA videos as government work - road safety spots, public health campaigns, suicide prevention. The strongest PSAs of the last 15 years have been corporate.

P&G's "Like a Girl" did more for gender confidence than most government campaigns. Microsoft's "We All Win" moved the cultural conversation on disability further than any policy advert. Mastercard, Apple, Lloyds, Cleveland Clinic, Accenture, and AT&T have each funded PSA-style films that drove measurable behavior change at scale - usually as part of a brand purpose, CSR, or category-defining initiative.

This post breaks down 12 of the strongest examples - 10 corporate or enterprise, 2 public sector for benchmarking. For each, you get the sponsor, the year, the format, the length, and the specific reason it worked. At the end, the patterns enterprise marketing, comms, and CSR teams can borrow for their own campaigns. If you want the full production playbook, jump to our guide on how to create a PSA video.

How we picked these PSA video examples

Three filters. First, measurable behavior or attitude change - a documented lift in the action the PSA asked for, not just views. Second, sponsor mix weighted toward enterprise - most enterprise comms teams will never produce a government road safety PSA, but they may well produce a brand purpose film, a DEI campaign, an internal comms PSA, or a healthcare provider awareness piece. Third, format variety - if every example was animated or every example was documentary, the list would be useless to a team weighing options.

The 12 examples below run from 2010 to 2022 and cover financial services, healthcare, technology, FMCG, professional services, and the few public sector campaigns that enterprise comms teams genuinely study because they set the bar.

1. Like a Girl - Always (P&G, 2014)

Sponsor: Always (Procter & Gamble) | Length: 3:18 | Format: Documentary-style social experiment | Issue: Girls' confidence and gender bias | Sector: FMCG / consumer goods CSR

P&G's Always asked teenage girls and boys to "run like a girl, throw like a girl, fight like a girl." They all performed limp, embarrassed parodies. Then they asked younger girls (pre-puberty) the same thing. The young girls ran, threw, and fought with full force. The reveal: somewhere between childhood and adolescence, "like a girl" stops meaning "like myself" and starts meaning "weakly."

The campaign became the highest-shared Super Bowl ad of 2015 (the 60-second cut), generated 90+ million global views, and Always reported a measurable shift in young women's perception of "like a girl" as a positive phrase in post-campaign brand tracking. It is the modern reference for corporate purpose-led PSA work.

Why enterprise teams study this: the social experiment format makes the message land without the brand having to say it. Viewers reach the conclusion themselves, which is the most durable form of behavior change - and the format scales to any topic where there is a hidden bias your audience does not know they hold.

2. Real Beauty Sketches - Dove (Unilever, 2013)

Sponsor: Dove (Unilever) | Length: 3:00 | Format: Documentary-style social experiment | Issue: Women's self-perception | Sector: FMCG / consumer goods CSR

An FBI-trained forensic sketch artist drew women twice. Once based on the woman's own description of her face. Once based on a stranger's description of the same face. The two sketches sat side by side; the stranger's version was almost always more flattering. The reveal: women see themselves more harshly than others see them.

The film hit 163 million global views in two months, won the Cannes Titanium Grand Prix, and became (briefly) the most-viewed online ad in history. More importantly, it cemented Dove's "Real Beauty" platform as a long-term brand purpose anchor that has now run for two decades.

Why enterprise teams study this: a strong PSA can do double duty as the launch piece for a 10+ year brand purpose platform. The single film is the artifact; the purpose platform is the asset. Most enterprise CSR work under-invests in the platform layer.

3. From One Second to the Next - AT&T It Can Wait (2013)

Sponsor: AT&T | Length: 35:00 (documentary), 30-90s (PSA cuts) | Format: Documentary directed by Werner Herzog | Issue: Texting while driving | Sector: Telecom CSR

AT&T - the company whose product was directly enabling the problem - hired Werner Herzog to direct a 35-minute documentary on the families destroyed by texting-while-driving crashes. Stripped, slow, painful storytelling, with shorter 30-90s cuts for paid distribution. The campaign also collected 40+ million pledges to not text and drive.

Independent academic research showed measurable shifts in self-reported texting-while-driving behavior in viewers six months post-exposure - a level of post-campaign behavior persistence that almost no PSA matches.

Why enterprise teams study this: when your product or category is part of the problem, owning the conversation about responsible use is more credible than letting regulators or NGOs lead it. Tech, financial services, gaming, gambling, alcohol, and food brands all have versions of this opportunity.

4. We All Win - Microsoft (Super Bowl 2019)

Sponsor: Microsoft (Xbox Adaptive Controller) | Length: 1:00 (Super Bowl), 2:00 (extended) | Format: Live action documentary-style | Issue: Disability inclusion in gaming | Sector: Tech / accessibility

Microsoft used a Super Bowl slot - the most expensive media buy in advertising - to feature children with limb differences playing Xbox using the Adaptive Controller. No corporate logos in the first 50 seconds. No product close-ups. Just kids playing with their families. The product reveal at the end was almost incidental.

Kellogg School's Super Bowl Ad Review rated it the year's strongest spot. The film generated 10+ million views in 36 hours and is still the most-cited example of how to do disability inclusion in corporate brand work.

Why enterprise teams study this: the spend was the message. Putting a disability-inclusion film in the Super Bowl - rather than tucking it into a CSR microsite - signaled the company's stake. The film worked because the budget made the commitment unambiguous.

5. The Talk - Procter & Gamble (2017)

Sponsor: Procter & Gamble | Length: 1:48 | Format: Live action narrative | Issue: Race and parenting in America | Sector: FMCG corporate CSR

P&G filmed a series of moments showing Black mothers across decades preparing their children for racism - "the talk" that white parents do not have to give their kids. No P&G brands appear in the film. No call to action other than to acknowledge a reality. The Cannes Film Grand Prix in 2018 followed.

The film was controversial in ways that some brand-safety-focused enterprises would have avoided. P&G chose to publish anyway, and the campaign extended into a multi-year platform on race and bias - "Widen the Screen" - that has informed the company's broader media spend on Black creators.

Why enterprise teams study this: brand-purpose PSAs that take a real position will get pushback, and the pushback is part of the proof the position matters. PSAs that everyone agrees with usually have not said anything.

6. The Greatest - Apple (2022)

Sponsor: Apple | Length: 2:21 | Format: Live action set to music | Issue: Disability and accessibility | Sector: Tech / accessibility

Apple released "The Greatest" on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Seven people with disabilities use Apple's accessibility features in the course of normal days - VoiceOver, AssistiveTouch, Door Detection, Sound Recognition, Live Captions. No voiceover. No statistics. Just people doing their lives, with the features as quiet enablers.

The film hit 16 million YouTube views in one week and won the Emmy for Outstanding Commercial. It is the modern reference for product-led accessibility storytelling - the product is the PSA, because the product itself is the behavior change.

Why enterprise teams study this: when your product solves the problem the PSA names, the PSA writes itself - you just film the people using it. Apple did not need to dramatize the issue; the issue is what the product solves.

7. Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care - Cleveland Clinic (2013)

Sponsor: Cleveland Clinic | Length: 4:24 | Format: Live action with on-screen text overlays | Issue: Healthcare empathy | Sector: Healthcare provider

The camera walks through a Cleveland Clinic hospital. Floating text bubbles appear over the heads of the people on screen - patients, family members, nurses, doctors. "Visiting his dad for the last time." "Just received life-changing news." "Pre-op anxiety." The film makes the invisible context behind every hospital interaction visible for four minutes.

Originally produced for an internal staff meeting, then released publicly. 8+ million YouTube views. It became a standard onboarding film for hospitals worldwide and reset the bar for healthcare provider brand work.

Why enterprise teams study this: the film was made for internal use first and became external-grade by accident. PSA-quality production aimed at employees often outperforms PSA-quality production aimed at the public. Internal comms teams under-invest here.

8. Get the Inside Out - Lloyds Banking Group (2018)

Sponsor: Lloyds Banking Group | Length: 1:00 | Format: Live action celebrity testimonial / sticky-notes game | Issue: Mental health stigma in the workplace | Sector: Financial services

Lloyds won Channel 4's £1m Diversity in Advertising prize and used the slot for a film on invisible mental health conditions. Lloyds employees, members of the public, and celebrities (Professor Green, Jeremy Paxman, Rachel Riley) play a sticky-note guessing game - a name on the forehead, questions until they guess - but the names are mental health conditions. Anxiety. Depression. PTSD. Bipolar.

The campaign launched on Time to Talk Day 2018 and generated 24,000+ social mentions over two months. 92% positive sentiment - a benchmark few mental health campaigns from financial services brands have matched.

Why enterprise teams study this: a financial services brand running a mental health PSA could land as performative; this one did not, because the format involved Lloyds' own employees rather than just hired actors. The internal authenticity carried the external campaign.

9. True Name - Mastercard (2019, ongoing)

Sponsor: Mastercard | Length: 1:00-2:00 (multiple cuts) | Format: Live action testimonial | Issue: LGBTQ+ identity recognition | Sector: Financial services / payments

Mastercard launched a card product that lets trans and non-binary cardholders use their chosen name on the card front, and produced a campaign film featuring real people whose deadnames had caused them daily friction at every checkout. The PSA-style film and the product launch were one motion.

Generated 1.5+ billion impressions, won the Cannes Lions Grand Prix in Innovation, and was adopted by Citi and BMO as issuers. The most-cited example of "the product launch IS the PSA" in financial services.

Why enterprise teams study this: if you can ship a real product change at the same time as the campaign, the campaign has a permanent receipt. Most CSR PSAs ask viewers to feel something; this one let them sign up for the thing the PSA was about.

10. Inclusion Starts With I - Accenture (2017)

Sponsor: Accenture | Length: 1:54 | Format: Live action documentary moments | Issue: Workplace inclusion | Sector: Professional services / B2B

Accenture's PSA-style film captures small everyday moments where exclusion happens at work - the joke heard in passing, the stare in the meeting room, the email that misgenders someone. No actors; the moments are read by people who have lived them. The film closes with the line "Inclusion Starts With I."

The campaign became the foundation of Accenture's ongoing DEI public commitment. Localized cuts were produced for India, South Africa, Argentina, and Brazil. It is the reference example for B2B professional services brands doing DEI campaigns at global scale.

Why enterprise teams study this: the film does not lecture; it shows the moments and lets the viewer recognize them. B2B professional services brands often default to corporate-y DEI films that nobody watches. This one was watched because it felt observed, not produced.

11. #OkToSay - Heads Together (The Royal Foundation, 2017)

Sponsor: The Royal Foundation, with corporate partners | Length: 60-90 seconds (multiple cuts) | Format: Live action conversation | Issue: Mental health stigma | Sector: Charity / public sector with enterprise partner involvement

Heads Together used the 2017 London Marathon as the launch platform for a campaign asking people to talk about mental health. The films featured public figures - Prince William, athletes, soldiers, parents - having short, awkward, real conversations about depression, anxiety, and grief. No experts, no statistics. Just people having the conversation the campaign was asking everyone else to have.

The campaign was credited with a measurable shift in UK public attitudes toward discussing mental health, and partner mental health charities reported a sharp increase in calls in the months after launch. Many of the corporate partners (Heathrow, Unilever, BlackRock, Virgin Media) ran internal versions of the campaign for their own employees.

Why enterprise teams study this: the PSA models the behavior it asks for. Most mental health PSAs talk about the importance of talking about mental health; Heads Together just talked about mental health. The format is the message. Corporate internal comms teams running mental health programs lift this template directly.

12. Ask R U OK? Any Day - R U OK? (Australia)

Sponsor: R U OK? | Length: 60 seconds | Format: Live action testimonial | Issue: Suicide prevention through conversation | Sector: Charity, with extensive corporate partner adoption

R U OK? Day asks one thing: ask the people in your life if they are okay, and listen to the answer. The campaign has run since 2009 with new PSAs each September. The 60-second cut above is one of the canonical recent versions, with the simple framing the campaign has held throughout: a single question, scripted in four words, that anyone can ask today.

Independent evaluation has tracked rising public confidence in starting mental health conversations across the campaign's lifetime. The bigger story for enterprise teams is the corporate adoption: hundreds of Australian employers run their own internal R U OK? Day campaigns each September, often producing their own short employee-led PSA films using the R U OK? template.

Why enterprise teams study this: R U OK? Day is the largest example of a charity-led PSA template that enterprises have adopted as their own internal comms campaign. If your company runs an annual mental health day, this is the template that already works at scale.

What the best PSA video examples have in common

Read across the 12 examples and the same five patterns appear:

One specific behavior or shift, not a category. "Ask R U OK?" beats "support mental health." "Watch a Black mother prepare her child for racism" beats "support diversity." The more specific the ask, the more the audience can actually act on it.
The format matches the audience. Lloyds used a sticky-note party game to land mental health for a financial services audience. Apple used product-in-use storytelling for a tech audience. Microsoft used Super Bowl scale to signal commitment. Wrong format kills good messages.
The viewer reaches the conclusion themselves. Like a Girl, Real Beauty Sketches, and The Talk all withhold the message until the viewer has done the emotional work. PSAs that state the message early get tuned out; PSAs that earn the message land.
The brand earns the right to talk about the issue. AT&T owned texting-while-driving because their product enabled it. Apple owned accessibility because their product solves it. Lloyds owned mental health because they put their own employees on screen. PSAs that feel parachuted in get rejected; PSAs that connect to a real brand stake get watched.
Distribution is half the strategy. Microsoft bought a Super Bowl slot. P&G ran The Talk on broadcast TV. Heads Together used the London Marathon as a launch event. Mastercard tied the PSA to a product launch. The PSA is the artifact; distribution is what makes it move behavior.

How to make a PSA video like the examples above

The full production playbook is in our companion guide: how to create a PSA video. Six steps, with the script formula, the three formats that dominate the category, and the cost ranges by production type.

If your campaign needs animation, see our animated video production service. If you are leaning on first-person testimony like It Gets Better, Lloyds, or Heads Together, see our interview video production service. For internal employee-facing PSA work like the Cleveland Clinic film, see internal communications video production.

PSA video FAQs

What is the most famous corporate PSA video of all time?

P&G's "Like a Girl" (2014) and Dove's "Real Beauty Sketches" (2013) are the two most-cited corporate PSA-style films of the past 15 years. Both took home the Cannes Titanium Grand Prix, both crossed 100 million views, and both became multi-year brand purpose platforms rather than one-off campaigns. Apple's "The Greatest" (2022) and Microsoft's "We All Win" (2019) are the modern equivalents in tech.

How long should a PSA video be for an enterprise audience?

The strongest enterprise PSAs run 60 seconds to 3 minutes. 60-90 second cuts are the standard for paid distribution (TV, social, pre-roll) and Super Bowl-tier launches. 2-3 minute cuts work for narrative-driven PSAs (Like a Girl, Real Beauty Sketches, Cleveland Clinic Empathy) where the story needs room to land. 30-second cuts work as supporting versions for performance media but rarely as the lead asset.

Can a corporate brand make a PSA video?

Yes - and most of the strongest PSAs of the past decade have been corporate. The distinction between a PSA and a commercial is intent and funding model, not who pays for it. Corporate PSAs are typically funded out of brand purpose, CSR, or DEI budgets rather than performance marketing. The success metric is behavior change, attitude shift, or brand purpose lift, not direct sales attribution.

What makes an enterprise PSA video effective?

Five things, drawn from the examples above. A single specific behavior or attitude as the call to action. A format matched to the audience. A reveal or insight the viewer reaches themselves. A real brand stake in the issue (not parachuted-in CSR). Distribution thinking baked in from the start - paid placement, partnership channels, internal employee rollout, not just an upload-and-hope launch.

How much does a corporate PSA video cost to produce?

The range is wide. A typical corporate PSA-style film with one location, professional production, and 60-90 second runtime sits in the $30,000-$150,000 range. Multi-location documentary-style films like AT&T's "From One Second to the Next" or Cleveland Clinic's "Empathy" run higher - $150,000-$500,000+. Super Bowl-tier launches like Microsoft's "We All Win" sit above that, with the media buy often dwarfing the production cost. Subscription production models like Shootsta bring unit cost down significantly for enterprises producing multiple PSA-style cuts a year - get in touch for a quote.

What is the difference between a PSA, a commercial, and a brand purpose film?

A PSA is produced to change behavior on a public-interest issue, regardless of sponsor. A commercial is produced to drive product sales. A brand purpose film is the corporate version of a PSA - produced to change behavior or attitude on an issue the brand has chosen to associate with. The lines blur in cases like Mastercard's "True Name" (PSA + product launch) or Apple's "The Greatest" (brand purpose film + product showcase). The format and craft are similar; the success metric is what differs.

Should an enterprise PSA video include the brand logo prominently?

Generally no - or at least not until the end. The strongest corporate PSAs above all hold the brand reveal until the final 5-10 seconds. Microsoft's "We All Win" goes 50 seconds before the Xbox logo. P&G's "The Talk" never shows a P&G product. Apple's "The Greatest" features Apple products as quiet background, not as hero. Audiences read early branding as commercial intent and disengage; audiences read late branding as a sponsor revealing themselves and credit the brand for restraint.

Producing your own PSA

If you are a comms, brand, CSR, or DEI team producing PSA-style video, Shootsta works with enterprise teams across financial services, healthcare, tech, professional services, and FMCG. Live action, animation, documentary, internal employee-facing - we cover the formats above. Get in touch for a quote, or read the companion guide on how to create a PSA video for the full production playbook.