Ridgeline High School student Clair Turpin’s Clean Air PSA was awarded the Engel & Volkers Logan Award in the 2022 Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest.
LOGAN—The 2023 Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest winners will be announced during Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art for Community Art Day, Sat. Feb. 11.
Over 800 students from Logan, Ridgeline, Fast Forward, Carbon, Whitehorse, West Side, Preston, Grand County, Granger and other high schools from Utah and southern Idaho participated in this year’s contest.
“The entries seem to get better and more ingenious every year,” USU Jon M. Huntsman School of Business Professor Edwin Stafford said. “Creative competitions are important vehicles for educating youth as they spark the joy of learning and self-discovery that you just can’t replicate in the classroom.”
The public service announcements designed by students combining art, science, and savvy marketing to encourage Utahns to help keep the air healthy through carpooling, using alternative transportation, limiting idling, and trip chaining in provocative, funny and edgy messaging.
Local businesses, organizations and individuals donated the approximately $6,000 in cash and gift cards that will be awarded to the winning designs. The winning PSAs will be displayed across the state and on social media for educational outreach.
This year’s PSAs created by the 60 finalists will also be displayed at the museum during the event.
The contest was created in 2015 by Stafford and USU Sustainable Communities Extension Specialist Roslynn Brain McCann to raise air quality issues awareness by helping youth understand the implications their new driving privilege can have on air pollution and engage them in ways to preserve air quality, especially during Utah’s polluted winter inversion season.
“Our research shows that the contest is having an impact beyond the teens in educating Utahns about how to help keep the air healthy,” McCann said.
Contest participants report becoming committed to refrain from idling, engage in carpooling and trip chaining. Participants’ parents also report being influenced by their teens, according to McCann.