Student Winners Announced for 8th Annual “Project Yellow Light” Scholarship Contest to Promote Dangers of Texting and Driving
Winning Public Service Advertisements (PSAs) Premiere Today in New York’s Times Square
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 7, 2019
Today the Ad Council and Project Yellow Light announced the winners of the eighth annual Project Yellow Light scholarship competition. The contest calls for students to create a TV, radio or billboard PSA to educate their peers about the dangers of distracted driving, including the dangers of smartphone distracted driving. The winning PSAs will be revealed today on a digital billboard in New York City’s Times Square, in space donated by Clear Channel Outdoor.
Project Yellow Light was established in 2007 by the family of Hunter Garner to honor his memory after his death in a car crash at age 16. According to the latest data, 3,166 people were killed in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2017, representing 8.5% of all crash fatalities that year.*
“We’re so proud of all our winners, all those who took part in this year’s competition and everyone taking an active role to encourage safe driving among their peers,” said Julie Garner, founder of Project Yellow Light. “Thank you to our amazing partners helping us advance our mission to save lives.”
Since 2011, Project Yellow Light has partnered with the Ad Council to turn the winning submissions into PSAs that receive national exposure through 1,600 TV stations nationwide, iHeartMedia radio stations, and Clear Channel Outdoor’s hundreds of printed billboards and over 1,200 digital billboards.
This year, AT&T’s It Can Wait and Apparent Insurance and Elephant Insurance are supporting the initiative for the first time, joining longstanding partners CBS 2 New York, Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO), iHeartMedia, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS). Scholarships for this year’s winning students are provided with support from Aspire, AT&T’s $500 million commitment to education and skilling, Apparent Insurance, Clear Channel Outdoor and Elephant Insurance. A special Snapchat filter, donated by Snap, will be available in Times Square during today’s winner reveal event.
