Campaign urges adoption of black children

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- An advertising program unveiled Tuesday uses a touch of humor to encourage blacks to adopt children from the U.S. foster care system, officials said.

"You don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent," one of the ads in the federally-funded campaign says.

Developed by the Advertising Council, the ads are to appear this fall on radio, television and in newspapers, USA Today reported Tuesday.

"They're long overdue," said Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

While just 15 percent of U.S. children are black, they account for an estimated 32 percent of the 510,000 U.S. children in foster care, Pertman said.

The new ads are part of a series begun in 2002 to promote adoption from foster care. Similar ads aired in Spanish prompted "so many calls, we couldn't handle them," AdoptUsKids project director Kathy Ledesma said.