MyCarDoesWhat, a vehicle education safety initiative from the National Safety Council and the University of Iowa, recently received a Platinum PR Award for PSA at the 2016 PR News Platinum Awards ceremony. The awards recognize the year’s most outstanding communicators, initiatives, and organizations in the PR arena.

The MyCarDoesWhat PSA is an engaging animated video that educates drivers about the importance of understanding their vehicle’s safety technologies and how to use those safety features correctly. The PSA appeared nationwide on channels including Lifetime, the History Channel, and A&E and has garnered nearly 200,000 views on YouTube.

The 30-second PSA can be viewed online at https://mycardoeswhat.org/mycardoeswhat-psa-30/.

“Today’s vehicles offer drivers more assistance and safety features than ever before,” said Professor Daniel McGehee, director of the National Advanced Driving Simulator at the University of Iowa and the principal investigator of MyCarDoesWhat. McGehee is an adjunct professor of occupational and environmental health in the University of Iowa College of Public Health. “It is critical that drivers understand how to use these technologies. In addition to the PSA, MyCarDoesWhat offers tips, videos, and other resources to help educate drivers about the use of these technologies to keep them and their passengers safe on the roads.”

The National Safety Council and the University of Iowa partnered in 2015 to launch MyCarDoesWhat to educate the public on how to best interact with vehicle safety features to have better, safer driving experiences.

The MyCarDoesWhat campaign was also honored this year with a Thoth Award Certificate of Excellence for Public Service and a North American Excellence Award.

The campaign’s website, MyCarDoesWhat.org, includes educational videos and other information about a variety of safety technologies including back-up cameras, blind spot monitoring systems, forward collision warning and other collision avoidance systems that help drivers.