This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Twelve years ago, there was a fatal crash on a dirt road in rural Virginia. The speeding teenage driver was killed instantly, and one of his passengers, Hunter Garner, died before he arrived at the D.C. emergency room, fifty miles away. It changed life for the Garner family and, led by Julie, Hunter’s mother, they were determined that the young man’s death should not be in vain.
Julie Garner looked for ways to reach out to other young people so that they might not make the same mistakes and decided to set up a scholarship fund for Hunter’s High School. It took the form of a competition for students to create a video that would encourage their peers to drive more carefully and to pay attention to what can be a dangerous activity. The Garners called it Project Yellow Light and it is aimed to draw attention to what is one of the leading causes of death among children between 10 and 19 years. In fact, worldwide, traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death among young people.
After the success of the local scholarship campaign, Julie contacted the Ad Council, whose aim is described as, “to identify a select number of significant public issues and stimulate action on those issues through communications programs that make a measurable difference in our society.”
There was not a positive response at first, but then Julie received a follow-up phone call and the Ad Council had decided to take on Project Yellow Light as a worthy inclusion in its national public campaign service. Julie’s project was able to take on a national role, expanding beyond Virginia.
Gradually, Project Yellow Light spread across the country. Last year there were nearly 2,000 entries from all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia.
Who were these students and what were they aiming for? The program is divided between high school students ages 14-20, and college undergraduates from 15-25.
As the interest spread, the project grew to include radio spots, supported through the iHeartRadio channel, an active partner with the Project. The support and participation of Clear Channel expanded the program to billboard advertising, another means of promoting the Yellow Light message.
Park Your Phone- 2018 College Billboard Winner , YellowLight Project
Students can participate individually or in teams and can enter any one or all of the three areas, creating a message that not only supports the Yellow Light objectives, but appeals to and resonates with their peers.
There are guidelines that the students must follow when creating their Public Service Announcements (PSAs). There are examples of each type of PSA and winners from previous years on the website www.projectyellowlight.com.
So what do the winning students get out of the Project? All participants get to understand and investigate a major health and safety problem that is wasting too many young lives, which spreads the word to their immediate peers. There are deadlines for input – March 1st for billboard entries and April 1st for video and radio submissions.
Next all entries must be reviewed, and this is a task that Julie Garner has taken as her own. She looks at all submissions, one at a time. A big job, but one that she enjoys and finds worthwhile. The entries are whittled down to 10 in each category, for both high school and college entries.
The final stage is handed over to four celebrity or specialist judges, such as Aloe Blacc, an international R&B singer who is noted for his humanitarian efforts, and Jeff Godby, a leading figure in the U.S. advertising world, who has been a judge for five years.
The winners (high school and college) of the billboard competition receive a scholarship of $2,000, as do the winners of the radio competition. The first placed entrants in the video competition receive $5,000, second place $2,000 and third place $1,000.
There are additional incentives, as the winning video could be distributed nationally to approximately 1,600 TV stations as an Ad Council PSA. And Clear Channel Outdoor could use the winning billboard to be displayed on their digital billboards across the U.S. The winning radio spot has a chance be shared on iHeartRadio's national Internet and radio station network throughout the U.S.
Project Yellow Light is supported by many partners with funding and publicity, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Apparent Insurance, CBS2 New York, AT&T (It Can Wait campaign), Elephant Insurance, as well as the scholarship funders. In addition to the website www.yellowlightproject.com details about the program can be found on scholarship sites as well as at many educational establishments.
I asked Julie Garner if she felt that the project was having an effect. Difficult to tell, of course, but she pointed out that the use of mobile devices in cars is declining slightly and that today’s youth are smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol far less than a generation ago. Peer pressure and some government nudges seem to work, however slowly. She hopes to be out of a job one day, although she admits it will not be anytime soon.
