MEDIA RELEASE
Lt. Gov. James R. “Duke” Aiona, Jr. has congratulated the local More Than You Think (MTYT) campaign for its efforts to reduce underage drinking in Hawaii and for earning the 2010 Communicator Awards from the International Academy of the Visual Arts.
With thousands of entries from around the world, the Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring the creative excellence for communications professionals. The MTYT campaign earned the top Gold Excellence award for its interactive website: www.morethanyouthink.o…
“Underage drinking is a public health concern that requires active family and community involvement, and this website provides a great resource that our children can go to in making informed and positive decisions,” Aiona said.
The MTYT campaign, launched in the Summer of 2009, gives Hawaii teens something new to think about when it comes to underage drinking. Emphasizing the positive behaviors of Hawaii’s teens, MTYT targets youth, ages 13-19, by challenging the untrue notion that “everyone drinks.”
The campaign’s goal is to empower teens to make positive decisions about their own lives, including staying away from alcohol, setting up goals and dealing with stress and peer pressure in healthy ways.
“The message that the campaign and the website have to Hawaii’s teens is very important, which is that most teens are making positive choices,” said Pedro Haro, MTYT Campaign Manager. “At the heart of the campaign is our website, which has a lot of interactive tools to help teens make informed decisions about alcohol and other things teens face.”
Since its launch, the campaign website has received more than 10,000 visitors and its sister campaign, The Stronger Influence ( www.strongerinflunence… ), has received several thousand visitors as well. The Stronger Influence campaign is geared towards parents, providing them with tools to have meaningful conversations with their teens about alcohol.
The MTYT campaign is a project of the National Guard Hawaii Counterdrug Support Office. The Counterdrug Support Office coordinates the Hawaii Partnership to Prevent Underage Drinking and other efforts to curtail underage drinking in the state. The campaign worked with Anthology Communications, a Honolulu-based communications firm, to design the website.
The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the New York-based International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), an organization of more than 550 leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts who are dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. For more information visit www.communicatorwards….
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