For Immediate Release

November 3, 2009 847-905-1649

AMTA National Massage Therapy Awareness Week®
Reaches Millions
Featured on Times Square Electronic Board

Evanston, IL – The American Massage Therapy Association® (AMTA®) is proud to announce significant media and public attention to massage therapy through its National Massage Therapy Awareness Week® (NMTAW) October 25-31. During the week, AMTA media relations efforts put massage therapy and AMTA members in front of consumers more than 100 million times. This included a posting about the week and the NMTAW logo on one of the large electronic signs in the heart of Times Square in New York City. The same image and information also were posted on the large Fashion Show Mall sign in Las Vegas, NV.

Print, broadcast and online media carried excerpts from AMTA’s annual consumer survey and wrote stories about the benefits of massage therapy, while the association also took advantage of social media, including Facebook, to increase attention to massage. The association produced a five-part video about massage therapy and finding a massage therapist that is posted on the MonkeySee.com website and on AMTA’s YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/amtamassage. Part of the series also was distributed to all NBC-TV affiliates in the U.S. In addition to being a useful tool to demonstrate the value of massage to consumers, the content is being used by at least one AMTA School member to help train massage students on how to conduct an initial interview with a client.

AMTA chapters and members also stepped up to promote their profession and the week. Activities already reported to AMTA include public demonstrations of massage, massage for elderly, ill and disadvantaged people, and contributed massage with proceeds given to local and national charities, including Ronald McDonald House. Many AMTA school members, such as Cortiva Institute, and Supporting members, such as Massage Envy, made special efforts to promote National Massage Therapy Awareness Week. The Florida Board of Massage Therapy issued a press release for NMTAW quoting AMTA consumer survey data and calling on the public to seek licensed massage therapists in the state.

Now in its thirteenth year, National Massage Therapy Awareness Week is an AMTA program designed to raise public understanding about the benefits of massage, attract media and public attention to activities being carried out by AMTA members, and provide opportunities for all AMTA members to demonstrate the value of their professional skills and build their practices.
The American Massage Therapy Association is the largest non-profit, professional association for massage therapists with some 58,000 Professional, Student and Massage School members. The association is directed by volunteer leadership and fosters ongoing, direct member-involvement through its 51 chapters. AMTA works to advance the profession through ethics and standards, the promotion of fair and consistent licensing of massage therapists in all states, and public education on the benefits of massage.
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