 As Media Director, he carried out advertising campaigns for environmental groups, peace and disarmament organizations, labor unions, women's and minority education campaigns and other public interest communications campaigns.They pushed for the first FCC ruling requiring Fairness Doctrine broadcast spot advertising response time to counter pro-nuclear utility advertising.Hickey was an associate director for the National Center for Economic Alternatives, and before the end of the Carter administration, Hickey - along with Mark Green and Gar Alperovitz - organized and ran the Consumers Opposed to Inflation in the Necessities (COIN), which "mobilized over sixty organizations addressing the needs of consumers, senior citizens, the environment, and energy supply, as well as gaining broad support from organized labor" to support a progressive program to control inflation.