With Utah State University marketing professor Ed Stafford.
The Utah High School Clean Air Marketing contest was started by Ed and USU Extension sustainability professor Roslynn Brain McCann in 2015.
The contest includes Utah participants from Cache, Carbon, Grand, Salt Lake, and San Juan counties, along with participation from Franklin, Idaho. Last year, 1,500 students were involved in the contest.
Ed is here to tell us about why the contest began, the effects it's had around the state, and his hopes for the future of the contest.
Wynter Varner
Thank you for joining us, Ed.
Edwin Stafford
Thank you.
Wynter Varner
Where did the idea for this contest first come from?
Edwin Stafford
Back in 2014, there was a group called the Cache Clean Air Consortium who held a conference at Utah State University.
The consortium consisted of faculty, students, local business leaders, interested citizens who were concerned about Cache Valley's air pollution, and some of the ways that we could try to address it.
I was asked to speak about marketing and how to sell clean air to people.
In the process of that conference, it came about that there was really no initiatives to appeal to young people. Particularly, none appealing to high school teens who were learning to drive and "abandoning the bus" as they decided to drive to school.
Roslynn and I started thinking, how could we make clean air and air pollution relevant to high school kids? We decided to come up with a contest.
We thought that if we could get the kids to come up with posters, or public service announcements, that would create a competition. That way, they could use their creativity to try to persuade other Utahns and their fellow teens to preserve air quality.
We started at Logan High School in 2015. We had a small group of about 75 students who participated and we gave away about 10 awards.
Over the years, it has grown significantly. This is our 11th year. This year, we had over 1,000 kids participating from southern Idaho and then across Utah. We're giving away $7,000 in prizes.
So it's just been an amazing run that we've had with this contest. Now that we've entered our 11th year, it's exciting to see it continuing to grow.
Wynter Varner
How have you seen the contest impact the participants?
Edwin Stafford
What we've done is we've collected data over the years from both the teens who are participating in the contest and their parents.
One of the trends that we saw early on was that the teens would engage, or pester, their parents about not idling their cars and about keeping the air clean. We decided to pursue that more to study what the dynamics of teens were in engaging their parents.
We call it the "inconvenient youth" effect — you know, kind of a take off of the inconvenient truth. What we have found is that the majority of the teens who are engaged in the contest also engage their parents.
When we interviewed and surveyed their parents, we have found that the parents appreciated their kids engaging them and informing them about what they can do to try to keep the air clean.
On a broader note, our research has found that there has been virtually no education in the K-12 curriculum in Utah about Utah's air pollution.
Parents and their teens have informed us through our research that the contest is the only formal education they get about Utah air pollution. We believe it's an important initiative.
Then, these public service announcements that are the winners are used for education outreach across southern Idaho and through Utah.
Last year, the University of Utah's law school had an exhibit in its lobby of all of our winners. We're excited that these public service announcements get used across the state for education outreach.
Wynter Varner
What hopes do you have for the long-term impacts of the contest?
Edwin Stafford
If teens who are learning to drive understand the air pollution implications of their new driving privilege while they're still young, this will facilitate lifelong learning.
What they learn now through the contest will be something that will stick with them for the next 50 or 60 years, as they drive for the rest of their lives.
People don't realize that over 50% of our air pollution in Utah comes from cars and trucks. A lot of people don't know that, and so once they learn that from our contest, they realize that they can be empowered by just remembering not to idle.
When you're in a school parking lot, waiting for your buddy or your sister at school, make sure to turn your car off. That way, you know you don't make these schools terribly polluted for people who are waiting for their mothers and fathers to pick them up from school parking lots.
Wynter Varner
Thank you so much for coming on today, Ed, and sharing your perspective insight.
This has been Wynter Varner with the USU Extension Education Highlights. Thank you for tuning in.
