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OAAA, Earth Day partnership celebrates 8th year, $500M in donated OOH inventory

Participating OAAA member media companies donated public service advertising space as part of more than $500 million in annual donated OOH inventory to support Earth Day.

Photo: OAAA

April 30, 2026 by Judy Mottl — Editor: RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com, Connect Media

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This year's Earth Day marked the eighth consecutive partnership between EarthDay.org and the Out of Home Advertising Association, a national trade group representing the out of home advertising industry.

The April OAAA Earth Day campaign, which was produced with creative agency and OAAA member Extra Credit Projects, focused on Earth Day's 2026's global theme, "Our Power, Our Planet."

The global event, on April 22, included over 10,000 events in the U.S., including community cleanups, teach-ins, peaceful demonstrations, tree planting, voter registration, town hall meetings and community organizing. On a global perspective more than 1 billion people, in more than 193 countries, demonstrated support for environmental protection.

Earth Day began on April 22, 1970, and was established by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson following the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill.

This year, participating OAAA member media companies donated public service advertising space as part of more than $500 million in annual donated OOH inventory to support the event. The messaging ran across billboards, transit displays and DOOH nationwide.

A legacy of environmental activism

Earthday.Org's mission is to broaden, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide. The organization works with 150,000 partners in over 192 countries to drive positive action for the planet.

The OAAA joined the movement as a partner in 2018 with a clear goal, according to Anna Bager, president and CEO of OAAA.

Founded in 1891, OAAA serves more than 850 member companies, including media owners, advertisers, agencies, ad tech providers and suppliers. The association is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in New York City.

"The goal is to use the scale and visibility of out of home media to amplify an important message — reaching people where they live, work, and move throughout their day," Bager said in an email interview.

The OAAA campaign plays an invaluable role for the Earth Day movement, according to Kathleen Roger, president of Earthday.org

"This campaign plays a critical role in translating awareness into visibility at scale. Earth Day is one of the largest civic observances in the world, and ensuring the message actually reaches people is essential," Roger said in an email interview. "This campaign places environmental messaging directly into communities, reaching people in real world contexts where it can resonate more deeply. The ability to deliver consistent, high-frequency exposure across major markets significantly strengthens public engagement and reinforces the urgency of the cause."

Digital out of home advertising provides something unique in today's media landscape, according to Rogers.

"This technology offers shared, unavoidable visibility. This is outreach that exists in the physical world, making it a powerful tool for broad awareness and cultural impact," she said. " It reaches diverse audiences at scale, delivers contextually relevant messaging, and reinforces credibility through its public presence. For a global movement like Earth Day, that combination of reach, trust, and real world visibility is incredibly valuable."

Public service support

The Earth Day OOH effort builds on a long-standing tradition for OAAA and the broader OOH industry, which has supported public service campaigns for more than a century, dating back to before the First World War.

"Each year, media owners across the country contribute billboard, transit, and digital inventory to bring the Earth Day message to millions of Americans at scale. In total, our industry donates more than $500 million annually in media space and production, demonstrating the continued commitment to using OOH as a platform for impactful messages," said Bager.

The OAAA campaign continues to gain support each year as it taps into something fundamentally human.

"Messages about caring for our planet are universal — they cut across audiences, geographies, and perspectives in a way few topics can. As the human medium, out of home is uniquely positioned to deliver those messages in shared, public spaces — where people experience them together, in context, and in the flow of their everyday lives," said Bager.

The combination of scale, presence and shared experience makes the message more visible, more memorable and more meaningful, she added.

"For media owners and partners, it's an opportunity to be part of something bigger — coming together as an industry to support a message that resonates broadly and reflects a collective commitment to the communities we serve."

OAAA public service approach

The Earth Day effort is just one of many public service campaigns run by OAAA. It has partnered with a wide range of organizations including the Ad Council, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

"Public service campaigns are a core part of what we do," said Bager. "For decades, we help mobilize our member companies to support high-impact PSA efforts, using the scale and visibility of the medium to deliver critical messages that drive awareness and civic engagement."

This year, in honor of America's 250th birthday, the OAAA partnered with the U.S. Department of Transportation on the 'Freedom Moves You campaign,' using OOH to celebrate the nation's history, honor its founding ideals and bring communities together around this milestone moment.

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About Judy Mottl

Judy Mottl is the editor of RetailCustomerExperience.com and DigitalSignageToday.com at Connect Media. She is an award-winning editor, reporter and blogger who has worked for top media for nearly four decades, including AOL, InformationWeek and Internet News, as well as for leading technology providers including HP. She’s written everything from breaking news to in-depth industry trends and reported on technology long before the internet arrived, including the debut of the first smartphone. When she's not sharing insights on digital signage deployments and trends in retail customer experience she's on the beach or watching the latest live murder trial.

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