DUI tagline contest begins
SANDERS COUNTY – The Sanders County DUI Task Force has started a catchy new campaign to discourage people from drinking and driving. The bumper sticker and banner contest challenges the community to get creative in order to find a new tagline for the phrase ‘don’t drink and drive.’
According to board member, Marti Good, the goal is to give the important message a make-over, bringing it to the forefront of everyone’s attention.
“You see ‘don’t drink and drive’ everywhere and we are all desensitized to it,” Good explained. “What we are wanting to do is have a bumper sticker and banner with a tag line like ‘don’t drink and drive – you can’t hunt from a jail cell.’”
Adding a tagline to the message helps renew the message. The contest will pick one winning tagline and the first place winner will not only receive a $50 gas card, but will also get their tag line printed on a ‘don’t drink and drive’ bumper sticker and banner, which will be distributed throughout the county by the task force.
“This is part of the education process of educating people about drinking and driving,” Good explained. “It’s just trying to get people to look at the ‘don’t drink and drive’ sign in a new way. Our task is to help promote ways to prevent drinking and driving in Sanders County in order to reduce death and injuries.”
The idea for the tagline contest came up in May and since then has been gaining momentum.
“What we realized when I presented the idea is everyone around the table sat there and I threw out one line and then the whole table bounced around thinking of other taglines. It was kind of infectious,” Good said. “We expect people to do the same thing and if it starts conversations or gets people in the bars saying ‘well don’t drink and drive – beer goggles are not prescriptive,’ then that’s a good thing.”
Good said the task force is looking for short and witty one-liners that are relevant to the consequences of drinking and driving.
“The taglines are all relevant to what happens when you drink and drive. The hope is people will look for those taglines,” Good said. “That’s the whole idea, just to up the awareness.”
The contest is slated to begin on August 13 and will run through September 18. The winning tagline will be announced on September 24.
The Sanders County DUI Task Force is made up of private volunteer citizens and county employees whose goal is to make Sanders County a safer place to live, work and play. Personnel from the Sanders County Sheriff’s Office, the Thompson Falls Police Department, the Sanders County Justice Court and the Sanders County Commissioners participate with the task force.
Those interested in submitting their entries can mail them to P.O. Box 6, Paradise, MT, 59856, or email them to magood1@yahoo.com.
The Sanders County DUI Task Force’s website will also soon feature an option to submit them online through the site.