MADD launches video contest for students

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The Central Saskatchewan chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has launched a new television commercial contest and is inviting high school students from across the province to enter.

To take part in the contest, students must produce a 30-second commercial in either VHS or DVD format on the theme "don't drink and drive." The winning entry will have their commercial professionally produced by Global Television, featuring the original cast who appeared in the winning entry. The final product will then air on Global as a public service announcement for MADD.

Patrick Barbar is the vice-president of the MADD Central Saskatchewan chapter, the first and so far only chapter of the organization in Saskatchewan, established in 1999. This is the first time the chapter has held a contest such as this, and it may even be the first time for any MADD chapter across the country, Barbar said.

The idea to hold the contest came from the success other organizations have had using similar contests to get their message out, whether that message be anti-smoking or anti-racism.

"And so we thought, hey, what a great idea, what a great way to get young people involved in our message. That's how it started," Barbar said.

"The mission statement of MADD is to eliminate impaired driving and to assist the victims of that crime," said Barbar, who is also a constable with the Saskatoon Police Service. "So a lot of people think MADD is just about getting the message out, don't drink and drive. And yes, that is a very big part of our mission. But we do a lot of stuff behind the scenes including victim support. We do court monitoring where we actually have volunteers in the courtrooms to see what kind of penalties are being handed out to people in cases of impaired driving. And the third thing we do, which is also important, is we do lobbying with the various levels of government to have legislative change and whatnot when it comes to impaired driving."

While don't drink and drive campaigns have been around for years, the messages don't seem to have the same impact as they once did, Barbar explained.

"In the early 80s when the campaigns first started, the don't drink and drive campaigns, there was a huge, huge decline in drinking and driving. Because the problem was so enormous. And as we hit the mid 90s if you look at the statistics, we've kind of plateaued now.

"Recently there was a fairly big news release from Stats Canada about per capita offences for drinking and driving for all the provinces, and Saskatchewan still remains the highest of the 10 provinces. And our rate currently ... it's 618 charges per 100,000 residents. And that is twice the national average. So everywhere it's still a big problem. And we've kind of reached a point where we're not making the progress anymore," he said.

Those same statistics show that while drinking and driving is a problem across Saskatchewan, that problem is by far worse in the rural parts of the province, where the drinking and driving offence rate is almost twice as high as in Regina and Saskatoon.

"I think there's still an underlying attitude in the rural areas that this is quasi-socially acceptable, and its okay to do. And we use it as an excuse, 'Well there's no buses, there's no cabs or anything like that.' And it gets passed on ... 'We did it as kids, therefore it's just the right of passage and our kids will do it.' And one of our messages is also at some point we have to start learning from the previous generation's mistakes instead of constantly repeating them. And right now, especially in the smaller centres, that's what's happening. People are just 'Well, it was good enough for me, therefore it's good enough for my kids.' And unfortunately that's not necessarily the case," he said.

"What we've seen over the last few years ... has been an increase with young people, which is quite frightening actually in the sense that you always think of young people, they're the ones thatare most exposed to the media, they're the ones who are currently in school. So you think that they would get the message even stronger than anybody else. But for some reason that's not taking place as much as we'd like to see it," Barbar said.

"I lecture in a lot of high schools and a big part of the problem is the belief that this kind of stuff only happens to other people."

To combat that attitude, Barbar is usually accompanied for the school presentations by another member of MADD who is willing to share their story with the students. Most of the members are victims of drinking and driving. Some have lost loved ones due to the actions of drunk drivers, some have themselves been injured. Those stories seem to have an effect, helping to drive the message home to the students, when they realize these things have happened to other young people across the province, within their community, and at times even from their own school.

"So it can happen to anyone, and that's really what we want to get out there, the message." Patrick Barber said.

The advantages of running a commercial contest for high school students is two-fold, Barbar explained. Not only does it get the participants to stop and think about the issue of drinking and driving themselves, but the winning entry might just be more effective in reaching a younger target audience because it's a message coming from their peers.

"I think one of the things that MADD works on as well is trying to use kids to influence other kids," Barbar said. "So there's peer pressure, but it's positive peer pressure. In the past we've taught kids, don't give in to negative peer pressure. But now we're trying to teach them, exercise positive peer pressure. Everybody's a leader, you can influence others."

Although the television commercial contest is aimed at getting MADD's messages out to youth, Barbar stressed that that in no way means that drinking and driving is solely a youth problem.

"It's not just kids, I want to get tat straight. People who drink and drive come from every walk of life. You can't pinpoint a particular ethnic group or particular age group or particular gender. I'm a police officer, and you see them from all walks of life coming through, rich, poor, professionals, blue collar workers."

The deadline for submitting tapes to the contest is noon on Feb. 12, 2004. All entries must be accompanied by a list of the participants involved in producing the entry, the name of the school the students submitting the entry attend, and a name of a member of the school's staff that organizers can contact. A letter from the school confirming that all participants are enrolled at the school must also be submitted as part of the entry.

For more information about MADD in Saskatchewan, or about the television commercial competition, call the MADD Central Saskatchewan Chapter at 244-MADD, e-mail your questions to maddsask@sasktel.net, or go to the chapter's Web site at www.maddsask.org.