John Puts Focus on First Amendment

A photo of John is being featured in a new "1 for All" campaign designed to heighten public awareness of the First Amendment.

The campaign, which launches July 1, is an unprecedented collaborative effort of educators, artists, journalists, lawyers, librarians and others in promoting a greater understanding of the First Amendment and encouraging young people to learn more about it--while providing teachers with the tools they need to do a better job of teaching about freedom. Ellen DeGeneres and "Meet the Press" host David Gregory are also pictured in the print and online advertising, which will be shown in over 1,000 media outlets including Google, USA Today, the New York Times Company, Parade magazine, the Huffington Post, NPR and Yahoo.

John's image will run in August and will be accompanied by the following text: "Free to speak to write to pray to rock to tweet. Thanks to the First Amendment, you can be whoever and whatever you want to be. Learn more and celebrate your freedoms by sharing your videos, photos, stories and songs. Show us how free you can be: 1forall.us."

According to 1 for All founder Ken Paulson (he's also the president of the Newseum and the First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C., and the former editor of USA Today), "John is a great fit. I know his commitment to free speech from my conversation with him on my 'Speaking Freely' TV show a few years ago. He was a terrific guest and seemed to enjoy the exchange. We admire his work and integrity, and we're be honored to have him play a role."

The ads, incidentally, were developed by Weber Shandwick, the agency that oversees the “Got Milk” campaign.