Teen Vogue and Toyota Partner on Safe Driving Campaign to Help Educate and Empower Teenage Girls

In conjunction with Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April, Teen Vogue and Toyota announced today “Arrive in Style,” a safe driving campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving among teenage girls and inspire them to make a mutual commitment with their mothers to drive safely.

While cars today are safer than ever, automobile crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers. In 2010, seven teens between the ages of 16 and 19 died every day on average from motor vehicle injuries.

“We are thrilled to partner with Toyota on this important initiative. When we saw the scary statistics around distracted driving, we knew this was a cause worth taking on,” said Jason Wagenheim, Teen Vogue Vice President and Publisher. “Teen Vogue’s influential young readers are the perfect ambassadors not only to participate in this initiative, but also to help build awareness and educate their peer groups on the importance of driver safety. Toyota, with the success of their ongoing work in this arena, is the ideal partner.”

“Teen Vogue really shares our commitment to help keep teens safe, and with their reach and readership they’ve been a great partner to help amplify our longstanding efforts to empower teen girls to be safer drivers,” said Marjorie Schussel, Corporate Manager of Corporate Marketing for Toyota Motor North America (TMA).  “We also are excited to involve moms since our approach to teen safety has always included outreach to parents as well.”

The “Arrive in Style” campaign – developed in partnership by Teen Vogue, Toyota Motor North America and their ad agency of record, Dentsu America – launches this week and includes print, digital and social media elements that will run through February 2014. Kicking off with the May print edition of Teen Vogue, which hits stands this week, monthly advertorials will feature helpful tips and advice from Toyota on different safe driving topics.  The campaign will also include stories and online videos of Teen Vogue readers and their mothers about their commitment to driving safely, underscoring the special roles that mothers and daughters play in inspiring each other.

Extending into digital, the campaign will drive Teen Vogue’s audience to the “Arrive in Style” online hub. The site will feature Toyota’s Mutual Driving Agreement that mothers and daughters can e-sign and share via Facebook for a chance to win monthly prizes. In addition to signing the Agreement, teens can upload a photo on the microsite of them and their mom “air driving” for a chance to win a trip to New York City to be featured in the February 2014 issue of Teen Vogue.

Study Reveals Distracted Driving Is Pervasive Among Teen Girls

“Arrive in Style’s” unique approach of involving mothers is based, in part, on the recent study by Toyota and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), which found a significant correlation between teen and parent driving behaviors, suggesting that parents are a major influence on a teen’s driving habits. 

“We know from our Study with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute that parents who engage in distracting driving behaviors more frequently have teens who engage in distracting behaviors,” said Dr. Tina Sayer, Toyota Collaborative Safety Research Center (CSRC) Principal Engineer and teen safe driving expert.  “It is critical for parents to talk to their teens about driving safety and to always be the drivers they want their teens to be.”

In conjunction with the launch of “Arrive in Style”, Toyota released new findings from the Study regarding driving behaviors of teen girls:

• Sixty-two percent of teen girls report using a cell phone while driving (handheld and/or hands-free).
• Nearly one in three girl teens (30 percent) reads a text or email once or more every time they drive.
• Almost a quarter of girl teens (23 percent) respond to a text once or more every time they drive.
• Almost one in five (19 percent) of teen girl drivers report that they have extended conversations via text message while driving.
• More than half (51 percent) of girls say they search for music on a portable music player, such as an iPod, while driving.
• Twelve percent of girls report that they update or check social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, while driving. 
• Seventy percent of teen girl drivers report they drive with two or three teen passengers and no adults in their car, which is associated with a doubling of a driver’s risk of being killed in a crash, as compared to having no passengers.

“Arrive In Style” is the latest initiative from Toyota that is designed to help keep teens safe on the road.  Toyota Driving Expectations provides hands-on, real world defensive driving courses that go far beyond what is taught in standard driver education courses, while Toyota Teen Driver  offers free online teen safety resources to parents, teens, educators and schools.   The Toyota Collaborative Safety Research Center works with leading North American Universities, hospitals, research institutions and agencies on research designed to better understand teen drivers’ risks and behaviors and identify effective recommendations to help keep them safe.

Courtesy of Toyota Pressroom