GOVERNMENT : Rappers, TV, Ads Are Enlisted to Sell Service Program : White House has launched huge campaign to get young people interested in the new AmeriCorps effort.

A beaming President Clinton, flanked by young people, is shown striding across the White House South Lawn. Everyone is clapping.

“AmeriCorps--Coming Soon To Communities Everywhere,” says the advertisement, which White House officials hope will be as effective at getting participants for national service as Smokey Bear has been at reducing forest fires.

AmeriCorps is the President’s signature domestic “peace corps” program. Starting in September, it will send young Americans into communities to “get things done”--like immunizing infants, tutoring teen-agers and making schools and neighborhoods safe.

In return, workers--expected to number 20,000 the first year--will receive a low wage, health benefits and stipends of $4,725 for each year of service that they can use for education or training.

Even though 60,000 people have called to inquire about signing up for the program, Eli Segal, the President’s national service czar, says he is a little nervous.

“If we throw a party and no one comes, then we haven’t thrown a party,” he said.

To make sure that does not happen, the Corporation for National Service, the independent agency Segal heads, has begun a sales campaign.

The first step was coming up with a logo, and that meant the “30-something” agency officials had to design a logo cool enough to appeal to those in their teens and 20s.

The corporation chose a design featuring a letter “A” swimming in a gold sun, encircled with the words: “AmeriCorps National Service” in blue block print.

After emblazoning the logo on T-shirts, badges, patches and bumper stickers, it was time to take the campaign on the road to college campuses.

To promote the visits, the corporation enlisted rap artist LL Cool J. In a public-service announcement recorded for college radio stations, he urges students: “Find out how you can be one of the 20,000 young people committed to rebuilding our communities. AmeriCorps, the new national service movement that will get things done.”

Then Administration officials, accompanied by rock or rap groups, hit the campuses of UCLA, Harvard University, the University of Minnesota and Morehouse College in Atlanta last month. Smaller events announcing AmeriCorps took place at 50 other campuses.

Segal also gave his pitch to national magazines from Elle to Rolling Stone to Money, hoping they would help launch national service by running articles in their September editions.

Negotiations are under way with Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide to have the advertising agency design public-service announcements for radio and TV. Popular bands are being asked to talk up the program at concerts through the summer.

And the Administration is trying to set up partnerships between local TV stations and AmeriCorps projects in their area, so they can keep viewers informed of what workers are accomplishing.

This emphasis on accomplishment is important because for the program to expand--or continue to exist after the first few years--Segal will have to be able to show Congress that it is having a real impact.

Segal said he has some concern that the campaign will create such demand that many interested young people will be turned away from the program. On the other hand, he said, he does enjoy entertaining the thought that his “product” could end up being as popular as the “Cabbage Patch Kids” doll craze.

Advertising campaigns for federal programs serve dual goals. One is to stimulate people to do what the government wants. The other is to sell the impression to the public that the government is doing what it promised.

For that reason, it is perhaps more than coincidence that Clinton figures so largely in the public-service ads being distributed to magazines and newspapers across the country.

“We always start with the assumption that this would not happen if Bill Clinton was not the President of the United States,” Segal said. “What is unique about this is that the President of the United States is so committed to it.”