ADVO, Inc. Program -- Inspired by 1983 Adam Walsh Movie -- Has Recovered One of Six Children Featured on Now Ubiquitous Cards

More than twenty years ago, a group of employees at home delivered print advertising leader ADVO, Inc., all came to work with the same nagging thought. The previous evening, they had each been emotionally moved to tears by the landmark television movie "Adam," which told the tragic story of the abduction and murder of John Walsh's son, Adam.

The movie shook the nation, bringing the issue of missing and abducted children to the forefront of America's conscience. Similarly, these ADVO employees could not get over the fact that -- had there been a way to distribute a picture of Adam -- he might have been recovered and his murder prevented.

"We all sat around the table in a conference room and said to ourselves, 'We're leaders in the direct mail industry and send out millions of pieces of advertising each day -- is there a part of our product that we could use to distribute pictures of missing children?'" recalls Vince Giuliano, ADVO's Vice President of Government Relations, who was part of that initial meeting.

A year and a half later, the answer to that question took the form of the first-ever ADVO Have You Seen Me?(R) card, which now reach the mailboxes of more than 100 million American households each week. Considered the most recognized piece of mail in America, ADVO's Have You Seen Me?(R) cards are the centerpiece in a program -- conducted by ADVO in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the U.S. Postal Service -- that has been directly responsible for the return of 137 missing children, equal to one out of every six children featured on the card.

In honor of the 20th anniversary of this lifesaving program, ADVO has planned a year of commemorative activities designed to bring further attention to the issue of missing children. Activities will include a "Take 10" campaign to encourage Americans to look more closely at the missing child cards they receive in the mail, a new partnership with NCMEC to distribute Amber Alerts through ADVO's ShopWise.com consumer website and a series of events aimed at raising awareness about missing children in America.

"We have been very successful at distributing these cards to Americans and helping safely recover missing children -- but we know there's always more that can be done," notes Giuliano. "We're hopeful that the activities we engage in this year will not only commemorate the 20 years of successful partnership ADVO has had with the USPS and NCMEC, but will raise the profile of the missing child problem in America so that, as a nation, we recover even more missing children."

Encouraging Americans to "Take 10"

In commemoration of ADVO's two-decade commitment to the issue of missing children, the company will actively encourage Americans to "Take 10" seconds to look closely at the missing child cards they receive in the mail by including a distinctive and eye-catching "Take 10" logo mark on ADVO's well- known ShopWise(R) shared mail advertising packages.

The "Take 10" logo will appear on the outside wrap of ADVO's ShopWise(R) packages. ADVO estimates that over the course of the year, more than 1 billion pieces of direct mail advertising will be distributed featuring the "Take 10" message, which the company believes will result in an increased awareness of the issue of missing children -- and hopefully even more recovered children.

"Law enforcement officials and missing child experts agree that simply taking the time to really look at the pictures on the missing child cards you receive can greatly increase the number of children who are recognized and recovered safely," notes Giuliano. "Those 10 seconds could be the single most important ten seconds in that child's life."

Taking Amber Alerts Online

ADVO, in partnership the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Prospectiv, an online marketing solutions provider, will help redistribute AMBER Alerts through targeted broadcast e-mails to millions of households across the U.S., including geographically-targeted e-mail AMBER Alerts to subscribers of ShopWise.com, ADVO's opt-in consumer-based web site, and EverSave.com, The KnowledgeStop.com and Healthy-Individual.com, Prospectiv's online consumer properties.

"One goal of AMBER Alerts is to instantly galvanize communities to assist in the search for and safe return of the child," says Giuliano. "This program will offer a very rapid and incredibly efficient way to enhance the way AMBER Alerts are disseminated and to spread the word about a missing child in cities and town across the country so that they can be recovered."

Events to Raise Awareness of Missing Child Issues

ADVO will engage in a series of 20th Anniversary events over the course of the year to attract additional media and consumer attention to the issue of missing children. In May -- which marks National Missing Child Month -- ADVO, representatives of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the USPS, along with several children recovered through the ADVO program, will ring the closing bell of the NYSE to commemorate two decades of commitment to the issue of missing children.

Throughout the rest of 2005, ADVO and NCMEC will also sponsor a series of Child ID events in communities across the nation. ID events provide child photo ID packets for parents, including an up-to-date photo and current vital statistics like height and weight. These events address a major hurdle many law enforcement agencies face when trying to find missing children -- namely that parents oftentimes do not have this important information on-hand when their child goes missing.

Recovered Children to be Key Part of Anniversary Activities

Throughout ADVO's commemoration of the 20th anniversary of its missing child program, the company plans to recognize the many successful recoveries the program has been responsible for by integrating recovered children into all anniversary-related activities. Children who will participate in anniversary activities will include Sam Fastow -- who went missing from New Jersey in July 1997 and was recovered in Texas in March 1998 after someone recognized him from an ADVO missing child card they had received in the mail -- and Kathleen Mooney, who was abducted in 1998 from her home in Pennsylvania and taken to Honduras, where she was miraculously recognized (because of an ADVO missing child card) by a Louisiana man vacationing in the Caribbean in 1999.

"There are some wonderful stories of what these children have accomplished since they have been recovered," says Giuliano. "It's a real honor for ADVO to have a part in helping these children get back to just being kids and enjoying life. We hope that throughout our anniversary celebration we can highlight as many of these children's stories as possible, because it's important for the public to know the positive things that can result just by taking the time to look at the missing child cards they receive in the mail."

About ADVO

ADVO is the largest home-delivered print advertising company in the U.S., with annual revenues of more than $1.2 billion. Serving 17,000 leading national, regional and local retailers, the company reaches 112 million mailboxes, or 90 per cent of the nation's households, with its ShopWise(R) shared mail advertising. At the same time, the company's industry-leading consumer database technologies, coupled with its unparalleled logistics capabilities, enable retailers seeking superior ROI to target, version and deliver their ADVO print ads directly to consumers most likely to respond.

Demonstrating ADVO's effectiveness as a print medium, the company's "Have You Seen Me? (R)" missing child card, distributed with each ShopWise(R) package, is the most recognized mail in America. This signature public service program has been responsible for safely recovering 137 children, one out of every six featured. The program was created in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the U.S. Postal Service in 1985.

ADVO employs 3,700 people at its 25 mail processing facilities, 33 sales offices and headquarters in Windsor, CT. The company can be visited online at www.ADVO.com .

About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

NCMEC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

NCMEC's congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 313,000 leads. Since its establishment in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 106,000 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 92,000 children. For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at www.missingkids.com .

Source: ADVO, Inc.

CONTACT: Mary Lou Dlugolenski of ADVO, Inc., +1-860-285-6197; or Payal
Rohira of Rowland Communications Worldwide, +1-212-527-8830

Web site: http://www.advo.com/
http://www.missingkids.com/