Close

The Allstate Foundation Keep the Drive High School Journalism Awards

Official Rules

NO PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.

The Allstate Foundation Keep the Drive High School Journalism Awards contest (the "Contest") starts November 5, 2009 at 12:01 AM Central Time ("CT") and ends March 20, 2010 at 11:59 PM CT ("Contest Period"). Applicants may enter either the Print Category or Broadcast Category, but not both.

DESCRIPTION: The Allstate Foundation Keep the Drive High School Journalism Awards contest is a print and broadcast contest to promote safe driving habits among teens, especially on how to avoid texting while driving. Contestants will submit either a print article or videotaped segment that creatively communicates a message regarding the dangers of texting while driving.

ELIGIBILITY FOR PRINT AND BROADCAST ENTRIES: Contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, who are current high school students between the ages of 13 and 18 during the Contest Period. Employees of The Allstate Foundation ("Sponsor"), Allstate Insurance Company, Fleishman-Hillard, and their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, promotion and advertising agencies, and members of their immediate family (spouse, mother, father, sister, brother, ward, daughter or son and their respective spouses, regardless of where they reside) and persons living in their same households, whether or not related, are not eligible to enter or win. An eligible minor must have his/her parent's or legal guardian's permission to enter. Void where prohibited by law. Contest is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws.

HOW TO ENTER:

PRINT CATEGORY: To enter the Keep the Drive High School Journalism Awards for the Print Category, during the Contest Period, visit www.KeeptheDrive.com/journalist and follow the directions provided.

All applicants must:

  1. Completely fill out the application form; and
  2. Submit their published newspaper article by one of the following methods:
    1. Upload a scanned copy of the published newspaper; or
    2. Provide a direct link to an official school newspaper online article; or
    3. Print and mail the entry form along with three (3) copies of the published article to
      Keep the Drive High School Journalism Awards
      c/o Fleishman-Hillard
      875 N. Michigan Ave., Ste. 3300
      Chicago, IL 60611

BROADCAST CATEGORY: To enter the Keep the Drive High School Journalism Awards for the Broadcast Category, during the Contest Period, visit www.KeeptheDrive.com/journalist and follow the directions provided.

All applicants must:

  1. Completely fill out application form; and
  2. Submit the aired broadcast video segment by uploading it to YouTube via www.KeeptheDrive.com/journalist.

Only one entry per journalist and/or team will be accepted. The Print article or Broadcast segment must be published/aired between November 5, 2009 and March 20, 2010. Articles written by a team or broadcast segments written and produced by a team must specify lead student. Journalists can enter as individuals or in teams of up to four (4) individuals.

Journalists should obtain permission from their parents/legal guardians and faculty advisors before submitting their entry. All entries must be received by 11:59 PM ET on March 20, 2010 to be considered. By entering, individuals (and, if eligible minors, their parents or legal guardians) agree to comply with these Official Rules. All entries become the sole property of the Sponsor and will not be returned.

Each entry must be the journalist's own original work, keep with the Sponsor's image and may not be offensive, as determined by the Sponsor in its sole discretion, nor can it defame or invade publicity rights or privacy of any person, living or deceased, or otherwise infringe upon any person's personal or property rights or any other third party rights. The Sponsor reserves the right to edit personal stories to protect individual privacy laws.

TEAM ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS: If You enter as part of a team, all members of the team must meet all of the Contest eligibility requirements, and designate a “Student Leader” to enter your article/broadcast segment on behalf of the team. Each member hereby grants the Student Leader authority to represent and bind him or her in connection with the activities and requirements contemplated hereunder, including, without limitation any communications with Sponsor and further agrees that the Sponsor may rely upon the statements of the Student Leader as the representative of the team.

TEAM DISPUTES: Individual submitting an article or broadcast segment speaks for Team. Sponsor assumes no responsibility for any internal disputes among your Team. In the event there is a dispute among Your Team, the decision of the Student Leader shall be final and binding, provided it does not violate these Official Rules. Teams may not substitute people once the team has made a Submission. Failure to properly execute an Affidavit by the Team, Leader and each team member, or the Team Leader to execute such other agreements as may be required by Sponsor will result in the team’s candidacy for selection as a Finalist being void.

FOR ENTRIES TO QUALIFY:

Print Category: Articles must have been published in a high school newspaper. If a high school does not have a printed version of the high school newspaper and is only available in an official online version for the high school, that article would then be considered eligible.

Broadcast Category: Segment must have been broadcast within the high school setting and aired for the entire student body to view. Segment shall not be longer than 10 minutes in length.

JUDGING: The topic of texting while driving and the Web site KeeptheDrive.com must be included in all published articles and broadcast segments to be deemed eligible. All eligible entries received by Sponsor will be judged by a panel of qualified judges from Quill & Scroll National Honor Society, Fleishman-Hillard, Allstate and The Allstate Foundation based on the following criteria (collectively, the "Judging Criteria").

Print Category:

  1. Readability (33%) – How much does the article engage the reader?
  2. Message (33%) - How well does the article deliver messages about the topic of texting while driving? Does the article incorporate and/or mention www.KeeptheDrive.com?
  3. Quality (33%) - Does the story demonstrate quality reporting and writing?

Broadcast Category:

  1. Overall segment flow (33%) - How much does the segment impact the viewer?
  2. Message (33%) - How well does the segment deliver messages about the topic of texting while driving? Does the segment incorporate and/or mention www.KeeptheDrive.com?
  3. Quality (33%) - Does the segment demonstrate quality reporting?

Sponsor reserves the right to conduct a background check, at its sole discretion. Finalists may be disqualified, at Sponsor's sole discretion, for any of the following: having been charged with or convicted of a felony or misdemeanor; having been personally responsible for a significant traffic crash; been convicted of a significant traffic violation (excluding parking tickets); had disciplinary action taken against at school due to an incident involving drugs, alcohol or violence; and/or having been suspended or expelled from school.

Sponsor's and judges' decisions are final and binding on all matters relating to this Contest.

WINNER NOTIFICATION:

Winners will be notified by telephone, mail and/or email by May 30, 2010. The winner (and, if minors, their parents or legal guardians) will each be required to complete an Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability and Publicity Release (unless prohibited by law), which must be returned within five (5) business days of date appearing on prize notification. Return of prize notification as undeliverable, failure to sign and return requested documentation within three (3) days of date of issuance or noncompliance with these Official Rules by any potential winner will result in disqualification and the prize may be awarded to a runner-up, at Sponsor's sole discretion. If any potential winner is an eligible minor in his/her jurisdiction of residence, prize may be awarded in the name of the parent or legal guardian, and such parent or legal guardian will be required to fulfill all eligibility requirements set forth herein.

PRIZES:

Print Category:

One (1) Grand Prize: winning entry will receive a $3,000 cash prize. One (1) Second Prize: winning entry will receive a $2,000 cash prize. One (1) Third Prize: winning entry will receive a $1,000 cash prize. One (1) Fourth Prize: winning entry will receive a $750 cash prize. One (1) Fifth Prize: winning entry will receive a $500 cash prize.

All prizes to be divided equally among team members as applicable.

Broadcast Category:

One (1) Grand Prize: winning entry will receive a $3,000 cash prize. One (1) Second Prize: winning entry will receive a $2,000 cash prize. One (1) Third Prize: winning entry will receive a $1,000 cash prize. One (1) Fourth Prize: winning entry will receive a $750 cash prize. One (1) Fifth Prize: winning entry will receive a $500 cash prize.

All prizes to be divided equally among team members as applicable.

Cash prizes will be awarded as checks. All prize details are at the sole discretion of the Sponsor. Prize is subject to certain terms and conditions as specified by provider. No substitution or transfer of prize is permitted, except by Sponsor, which reserves the right to substitute a prize with one of comparable or greater value, at its sole discretion. Any and all federal, state and local taxes on the prizes are the sole responsibility of the winners. Total Approximate Retail Value of all prizes: $14,500.

GENERAL: By participating, each entrant (and, if an eligible minor, his/her parent or legal guardian) agrees: (a) to abide by these rules and decisions of Sponsor and judges, which shall be final and binding in all respects relating to this Contest; (b) to release, discharge and hold harmless Sponsor, Allstate Insurance Company, Fleishman-Hillard, and their respective parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and advertising and promotion agencies, and the respective officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents and representatives of the forgoing (collectively, "Released Parties") from any and all injuries, liability, losses and damages of any kind to persons, including death, or property resulting, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from entrant's participation in the Contest or any Contest-related activity or the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of any awarded prize; and (c) to the use of his/her name, voice, article, image and/or likeness for programming, advertising, publicity and promotional purposes in any and all media, now or hereafter known, worldwide and on the Internet, and in perpetuity by Sponsor and its designees, without compensation (unless prohibited by law) or additional consents from entrant or any third party and without prior notice, approval or inspection, and to execute specific consent to such use if asked to do so.

By submitting an entry, each entrant (and, if an eligible minor, his/her parent or legal guardian) agrees that Sponsor shall own entry in any and all media now or hereafter devised for advertising, promotion, and other purposes, worldwide, in perpetuity, without compensation, permission or notification from the entrant or any third party of any kind, except as prohibited by law.

Released Parties are not responsible for lost, late, misdirected, damaged, stolen, altered, garbled, incorrect, incomplete or delayed entries. Released Parties are also not responsible for problems downloading any Contest-related information or materials from the Web site or for any other technical malfunctions of electronic equipment, computer on-line systems, servers, or providers, computer hardware or software failures, phone lines, failure of any entry to be received by Sponsor on account of technical problems, traffic, congestion on the internet or the Web site, or for any other technical problems including telecommunication, miscommunication or failure, and failed, lost, delayed, incomplete, garbled or misdirected communications which may limit a journalist's ability to participate in this Contest. Released Parties are not responsible for any other errors or malfunctions of any kind, whether network, printing, typographical, human or otherwise relating to or in connection with the Contest, including, without limitation, errors or malfunctions which may occur in connection with the administration of the Contest, the processing or judging of entries or blogs, the tabulating of votes, the announcement of the prizes or in any Contest-related materials. Sponsor reserves the right to modify, suspend or terminate the Contest in the event it becomes infected by a computer virus, bug, or is otherwise technically impaired, and to cancel or suspend the Contest in its entirety should tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or other causes corrupt the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper play of the Contest and, if terminated, at Sponsor's discretion, determine the winners from among all non-suspect, eligible entries received up to time of cancellation using the judging procedure outlined above. CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY AN INDIVIDUAL TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEB SITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE CONTEST IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS. SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, THE SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES AND OTHER SUCH REMEDIES (INCLUDING ATTORNEYS' FEES) FROM ANY SUCH INDIVIDUAL TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW AND TO DISQUALIFY SUCH INDIVIDUAL FROM THE CONTEST.

This Contest is sponsored by The Allstate Foundation, 2775 Sanders Road, F4, Northbrook, IL, 60062.