The U.S. Census Bureau went to unprecedented lengths to encourage Americans to return their questionnaires by mail in 2010.

The government agency responsible for the constitutionally mandated decennial headcount spent more than ever, an estimated $340 million, on advertising and marketing in the months leading up to April 1.

The outreach effort was stunning in scope. The advertising portion alone consisted of 400 commercials across all media - television, radio, print, digital, cinema, social media, events and sponsorships.


And they were difficult to miss.

The Census Bureau bought exclusive and pricey ad time during Super Bowl XLIV and the 2010 Winter Olympics. It sent 13 vehicles on a "Portrait of America" road tour to key events across the country such as NASCAR races and parades. It even filmed music videos.

"One of the primary goals for our advertising and outreach campaign is to increase the number of people who mail back their forms when they arrive in March," Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves said during a presentation at the Ronald Reagan Building in January 2010.

"For each percentage point increase in the national mail-back response rate, the Census Bureau saves taxpayers about $80 to $90 million in costs associated with having to send census takers to nonresponding households for in-person interviews," Groves said.

So how did much of a difference did the 2010 public-relations campaign make?

The short answer: Not much.

Mail Participation Rate Unchanged

Only 72 percent of U.S. households returned their 2010 questionnaires by mail despite the forms by being the shortest in history, consisting of only 10 questions and taking an estimated 10 minutes to complete.

That's the exact same response as in 2000, when the government spent only $100 million on its ad campaign.

Still, Commerce Department officials attempted to downplay the flat response rate by saying the role of getting a complete count was far more complex in 2010 than it had been a decade earlier.

"This is a significant achievement; the nation has stepped up to the challenge of participating in this once-a-decade civic event," said Census director Groves.

In the end, though, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in additional spending on marketing and advertising, more than one out of four U.S. households failed to return their census forms.

Why is that?

A Diverse America United By One Theme: Distrust

Top Census Bureau officials said they were pleased that the mail participation rate in 2010 merely equaled that of the 2000 head count.

Achieving a 72 percent response was a positive sign, they said, in light of trends toward declining survey participation, a more diverse population, a difficult economic environment and especially a growing distrust of government.

"We knew the job would be more difficult in 2010 than in 2000, yet the nation responded tremendously," Groves said.

Making the job more difficult were conservative opinion leaders such as television and radio talk-show host Glenn Beck and Republican U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota, both of whom urged Americans to provide minimal information to the government.

Bachmann made headlines when she said she and her family would not fully complete their census forms, only filling out the number of people in the household because "the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."

The level of distrust of the operation was also clearly evident in the number of physical attacks on census enumerators.

The news agency Reuters reported that the number of such incidents exceeded 500 and included reports of gunshots and one man chasing an enumerator with a bulldozer. By comparison, there were only 180 incidents in the 2000 head count.

Groves maintained, however, that he does not believe the attacks were part of an organized anti-government movement. He said the 500-some attacks were a "very, very small percentage" of the large number of door-to-door visits made by census workers.

"I can't make a big case that this is huge anti-government sentiment that motivated this. I don't see a pattern," Groves told Reuters.

Organized or not, many Americans distrust the government and the Census Bureau.

TV ads, billboards and hip music videos aren't likely to change that.