“Philadelphia Freedom from Drunk Driving Campaign” Launched for Memorial Day Weekend

Clear Channel Teams up with HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers® to Prevent DUI Tragedies

Philadelphia, Pa. ---A new billboard campaign here hopes to prevent drunken driving tragedies over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers® and Clear Channel Outdoor have teamed up to launch the “Philadelphia Freedom from Drunk Driving Campaign” with 50 highway billboards throughout the Delaware Valley, asking motorists to use a sober designated driver rather than drink and drive.  Website address: www.herocampaign.org

With the message, “Be a HERO. Be a Designated Driver,” the billboards can now be seen on highways in and around Philadelphia, including Clear Channel’s seven new electronic billboards on the Walt Whitman Bridge, I-95, and Rte.1 near the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Bar and tavern owners are being asked to serve free soft drinks to designated drivers in support of the campaign. The Philadelphia Phillies also have signed on, showing HERO Campaign television commercials before every home game, and serving free soft drinks to fans who sign up to be designated drivers.

The HERO Campaign was inspired by the tragic death of Navy Ensign John Elliott of southern New Jersey, who had just graduated with honors from the United States Naval Academy when he was killed in a head-on collision with a drunken driver in the summer of 2000. July 22 will mark the eighth anniversary of Ensign Elliott’s tragic death.

Governor Jon Corzine declared New Jersey the first HERO State in 2006, followed by Delaware last summer. The HERO Campaign seeks to register a million sober designated drivers nationwide to prevent drunken driving tragedies, which claimed the lives of more than 550 Pennsylvanians last year, and more than 17,000 victims nationwide, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“We want to make having a designated driver as automatic as wearing a seatbelt,” said Bill Elliott, chairman and founder of the HERO Campaign, and John Elliott’s father. “The HERO Campaign is John’s lifesaving legacy. He dreamed of serving his country.  Now he has his chance.”

“We are proud to be partnering with the HERO Campaign on this important DUI prevention program,” said David Lamberger, Clear Channel Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Philadelphia Region. “We believe the campaign’s positive and practical message will make a difference in reducing drunken driving injuries and deaths.”

In his senior year at the Naval Academy, Ensign Elliott was selected the Outstanding HERO of his class for his service as a Human Education Resource Officer. He was driving from Annapolis, MD to his home in Atlantic County for his mother’s birthday at the time of his death.

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