[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 83 (Thursday, June 4, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1311-E1312]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   A TRIBUTE IN RECOGNITION OF THE REGIONAL WINNERS OF THE AMERICAN 
 ADVERTISING FEDERATION'S 2009 NATIONAL STUDENT ADVERTISING COMPETITION

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 4, 2009

  Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend the 
regional winners of the American Advertising Federation's 2009 National 
Student Advertising Competition.
  Of the 142 schools that participated in this year's contest, 18 
regional winners are gathering during the first week of June in our 
nation's capital for the final competition. The teams proudly represent 
the following distinguished colleges and universities: the University 
of California, Berkeley; Johnson & Wales University; The George 
Washington University; Syracuse University; University of Virginia; 
Florida State University; Ohio University; Columbia College Chicago; 
Northwood University; The University of Alabama; University of 
Minnesota; the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Texas Tech University; 
Portland State University; Art Center Design College-Tucson; Hawai'i 
Pacific University; Chapman University; and Texas Christian University.
  This highly respected contest is the nation's leading competitive 
program to showcase emerging student talent in the advertising field. 
Each year, student advertising clubs at colleges and universities 
across the nation compete to create a winning integrated advertising 
campaign for the competition's sponsor.
  The 2009 competition challenge is particularly innovative. For the 
first time in the 36 year history of the competition, the students

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are being asked to tackle a social issue via public service 
advertising. This year's contest is focused on preventing binge 
drinking--a dangerous activity commonplace on many college and 
university campuses that all too often leads to grave and tragic 
consequences.
  To understand how serious of a problem this is, you need only look at 
recent statistics. According to the Monitoring The Future Study, 40 
percent of college students reported binge drinking in the past year. 
Tragically, this alarming statistic has remained relatively unchanged 
since 1993. In addition, numerous studies confirm excessive drinking by 
college students can lead to difficulty concentrating, memory lapses, 
mood changes as well as other problems that impact a person's daily 
life. Binge drinking also carries more serious risks such as alcohol 
poisoning, and physical and mental health issues such as lower brain 
function, personality changes, depression and even alcoholism.
  I commend the competition sponsor and organizers for tackling this 
importance issue that jeopardizes the health and safety of so many of 
our young people. This year's competition was made possible due to the 
collaborative efforts of the Century Council, the competition's 
sponsor, the Ad Council and the American Council on Education.
  Madam Speaker, on the occasion of the competition's national finals 
in the Washington, D.C. area June 4-5, I ask my colleagues to please 
join me in recognizing these remarkable students for their contribution 
to attacking the critical issue of binge drinking and for their 
talents, creativity and hard work. Each team spent many months 
developing their concepts, testing their messages on campus and 
creating evaluation criteria. Their winning concepts will not only 
provide fresh and innovative ideas for a communications campaign, but 
will also help us to better understand how to fight this serious 
problem. It is also my hope that long after this year's competition 
ends the participants and their universities will continue their work 
on this topic by sharing their messages with fellow students. Together, 
we can save lives by reducing binge drinking on college campuses.

                          ____________________