"Wear It Tennessee! Boating Campaign to Visit Chattanooga Riverbend Festival, June 5-6

NASHVILLE --- The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will bring its “Wear It Tennessee!” campaign to the Chattanooga Riverbend Festival for the second consecutive year. The boat will be on the Tennessee River along Chattanooga’s riverfront from 3 p.m. until dusk on Friday, June 5 and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 6.

Wear It Tennessee!" is collaboration between the TWRA Boating Division, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Safe Boating Council, and BoatU.S. The effort is a concentrated public outreach and marketing campaign designed to encourage adult boaters to wear life jackets.

The campaign – dubbed "Wear It Tennessee!" – launched on Memorial Day weekend in 2008. The customized Yamaha AR-230, donated by the company is manned by trained staff. The brightly-colored boat has the “Wear It Tennessee!” slogan very visible on its sides. The “Wear It!” crew will give away the inflatable life jackets to boaters who pledge to wear them at all times while boating. 

“We are looking forward to our second visit to Chattanooga,” said Betsy Woods, TWRA boating education coordinator. “Last year we found that boaters didn't know that the compact inflatable life jackets we wore were indeed life jackets. We began to inflate them or jump in the water, and people were amazed. So this year we plan to do even more demonstrations, to let people see how comfortable and compact life jackets can be."

The second year of "Wear It Tennessee!" kicked off during National Safe Boating Week in late May and continues throughout the summer. A full range of marketing strategies and tools, including radio, television, in-theater, outdoor, and internet advertising, will be used. In addition, for the first time, the campaign will be on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.