The "no texting while driving" message gets a new audience this week.
You can find it in 1600 newspapers across the country--including the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune. But don't look on the front page!
The popular comic strip "Zits" is featuring a week-long story line dealing with texting and driving--involving its lead character, 16-year-old Jeremy.
In Monday's strip, Jeremy is driving with a friend and sends a text message as he's stopped at a traffic light. In the last panel, it's clear he's involved in some sort of accident.
10 News talked to "Zits" creators Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman. They said the storyline is a perfect fit for their comic strip, but finding the humor in texting and driving wasn't easy.
"Even though the topic is right in our wheelhouse," said Borgman, "how to do it and how to be entertaining and fun and lighthearted at the same time as you're talking about something that has life or death consequences is the real trick."
But Scott and Borgman succeeded. They got their point across so well, the series will soon be incorporated into AAA's new teen driving website to help educate young drivers in a different way.
"Rather than an adult talking to a teen," said AAA's Michelle Harris, "it's almost like you're learning about something in a different perspective. You're learning through comedy or you're learning through someone else's actions which gets to the same goal as teaching."
Scott and Borgman say a lot of parents tell them they clip out some of their strips and tape them to the refrigerator or bathroom mirror to send a message to their teens. The message about the dangers of texting and driving couldn't be any more timely.
"If we can open up communication between parents and kids with a laugh," said Jerry Scott, "Boy, I've gotten what I need to out of this job."
10 News