Utah Clean Air Poster Contest's 2022 Winners to be Announced at Community Art Day

Winners of the 2022 Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest will be announced at Utah State University’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 12.

Public service announcements created by this year’s 60 finalists will be displayed at the museum as part of Community Art Day, a free event where people of all ages can create their own artwork inspired by the theme of Utah air quality.

The Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest was created in 2015 by USU professors Roslynn Brain McCann of USU Extension Sustainability and Edwin Stafford of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. Public service announcements designed by teens combine art, science and savvy marketing to encourage Utahns to help keep the air healthy by carpooling, using alternative transportation, limiting idling and trip-chaining (completing multiple errands at a time to limit unnecessary driving). PSAs are often provocative, funny, edgy and tied to teen pop culture. Winning PSAs are then displayed for education outreach across the state.

The marketing contest raises Utahns’ awareness of air quality issues by engaging youth, who are learning to drive, to understand the air pollution implications of their new driving privilege and ways to preserve air quality, especially during Utah’s polluted winter inversion season. Stafford and McCann’s research indicates that contest participants also influence their parents to engage in clean air actions — in what the researchers call the “Inconvenient Youth” effect.

“Youth have significant influence on their parents,” McCann said. “Our research shows that the contest is having an impact beyond just teens in educating Utahns about how to help keep the air healthy.”

Almost 1,000 teens participated in the 2022 contest, more than any time before. Participating high schools include Logan, Ridgeline, Fast Forward, Sky View, Whitehorse (in Montezuma Creek), West Side, Preston, Grand County (in Moab) and Granger (in West Valley City).

“There are so many amazing entries this year. The judges will have a hard time selecting the best ones,” Stafford said. About $6,000 in cash and gift cards are being awarded, all generously donated by local businesses, organizations and individuals.

Refreshments will be served at the event. Everyone is invited to participate in an art activity and to see the finalists’ posters. With the help of NEHMA’s education staff, participants will make their own design for a hang tag they can take home with them.

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