Original network Networks of NBC | ||
Production company(s) General Electric, NBC Universal, Comcast Original release September 9, 1989 – present Preceded by One to Grow On
(1983–1989) | ||
The More You Know is a series of public service announcements (PSAs) broadcast on the NBC family of channels in the United States and other locations, featuring educational messages. These PSAs are broadcast regularly during NBC's programming in primetime, late night, and Saturday morning.
The spots feature personalities from various NBC shows. Tom Brokaw was the first person to do a The More You Know spot; it aired on NBC in September 1989 (these replaced the One to Grow On PSAs that were used from 1983 to 1989).
A senior executive at NBC, Dr. Rosalyn Weinman, developed the campaign and wrote most of the on-air PSAs after putting an advisory council together. She ran the campaign for 10 years. The first 'comet trail' star logo was designed by Steve Bernstein and later produced by Paul Johnson on an animation stand using a slit scan technique at R/Greenberg Associates (now R/GA Digital Studios) in Manhattan. They were later updated using three-dimensional computer graphics. The More You Know program won a Peabody Award in 1993 for serving as "a model national public service campaign to provide a range of useful information to its vast television audience."
The campaign has featured a range of guests over the years including Amy Poehler, Joan Rivers, Jack McBrayer, Steve Harvey, Anjelica Huston, Questlove, and Jimmy Fallon. Several past US Presidents have also participated in the campaign including President Bill Clinton, President George H. W. Bush, and Barack Obama, who encouraged parents to be more involved in their children's education, while First Lady Michelle Obama worked to promote the prevention of childhood obesity.
"El Poder de Saber" (The Power of Knowledge) is The More You Know's sister campaign on Telemundo. While the other U.S. broadcast networks have similar campaigns, namely CBS Cares and Disney-ABC's Be Inspired, The More You Know is likely the most well known.
On February 24, 2016, NBC announced that it would launch a new Saturday morning E/I block named after the campaign, programmed by Litton Entertainment and replacing its in-house NBC Kids block.
Parodies
The campaign has been widely parodied, with references in The Penguins of Madagascar, Surviving the World (a webcomic), Will & Grace, 30 Rock, Family Guy, Drawn Together, Scrubs, an America-themed episode of X-Play, recurring parodies on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, a running segment on The Daily Show called "The Less You Know," parodies on The Showbiz Show with David Spade, and an April 2006 series of NBC-produced mock PSAs starring the cast of The Office. A sketch on Saturday Night Live portrayed the sometimes-fatal effects of CPR. A parody was also on MADtv mentioning the "[nonexistent] danger of conga lines", and another one which spouted random obvious facts. Spliced has a parody of public-service announcements in general (and The More You Know in particular), in brief segments called "Knowing is Growing". The campaign is also featured on many podcasts including The Florida Project.
During the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show (which itself was broadcast by NBC), performer Katy Perry closed the performance with a rendition of "Firework" while riding on a shooting star; following the show, comparisons were drawn to the former logo of The More You Know, as captured by user-created edits of photos from the scene.