ADVO's Missing Child Program Represented as President Signs National Child Protection Legislation.

Business Editors

WINDSOR, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 30, 2003

ADVO, Inc., (NYSE: AD) founder of the America's Looking for Its Missing Children(R) program, was represented today at The White House during a ceremony in which President Bush signed into law sweeping child protection legislation.

The new law will impose tougher penalties on child abusers, kidnappers and pornographers as well as create a nationally coordinated AMBER Alert system. Through AMBER, law enforcement can activate the emergency broadcast system in each state to help locate children who have been abducted. States will also receive federal funding to help upgrade existing systems with state-of-the-art communications technology.

"This landmark child protection legislation, with its tougher penalties and its rapid response AMBER system, provides essential resources to law enforcement in the search for, and ongoing protection of, our children," said Vince Giuliano, ADVO's Senior Vice President of Government Relations. "AMBER's national rapid response capabilities and the depth of reach offered by picture programs such as ours and others found in federal government buildings, on Congressional mailings and in retail stores, give law enforcement powerful tools to help bring home our missing children. What's more, public awareness of missing children continues to grow, which should positively impact recovery rates. With the public's help, our program has safely recovered six children in the last four months alone."

Giuliano, who has directed ADVO's picture program since its inception in 1985, was invited to attend today's Rose Garden bill-signing ceremony with the President, Members of Congress, representatives from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and other members of the missing child advocacy community.

In partnership with NCMEC and the United States Postal Service, ADVO distributes pictures of missing children, along with descriptive information such as height, weight, hair and eye color, to up to 85 million homes per week on its Have You Seen Me?(R) direct mail cards. The ADVO program is credited with safely recovering 126 missing children from across the country and overseas.

ADVO (NYSE: AD) is the largest full-service targeted direct mail marketing services company in the United States, with annual revenues of over $1.1 billion. The Company's shared mail advertising programs reach 102 million U.S. households on a weekly and monthly basis. This includes its core ShopWise(TM) branded programs, and the reach of its ADVO National Network Extension (A.N.N.E.(TM)) program. Additionally, the Company's SuperCoups(R) advertising solutions provide targeted advertising for local neighborhood businesses. ADVO has 23 mail processing facilities and 50 sales offices nationwide. ADVO's corporate headquarters are located at One Univac Lane, Windsor, Connecticut 06095, and the Company can be visited at its Web site at www.advo.com.