Students in advertising and related studies at Chaminade University and Hawaii Pacific University are preparing for the annual National Student Advertising Competition.

On April 25, the schools' presentations will do battle at Servco Auto Honolulu in Mapunapuna in order to represent Hawaii at the American Advertising Federation's annual national conference June 4 and 5 in Washington, D.C.

The winning Hawaii team automatically goes on to the nationals, while other states have multiple AAF chapters, meaning those teams have to compete at regional and district levels to see who gets to go to nationals.

There will be 16 teams at the national competition, one from each AAF district and a wild-card team, said Paul Lam, District 13 coordinator and president of AAF-Hawaii.

Lam is working to fill the considerable shoes of Louise Saffery, who recently retired from the (volunteer) coordinator position she had for as long as anybody can remember.

This year, students have been tasked with creating a message to fight binge drinking among young adults.

The sponsor is the Century Council, a nonprofit organization funded by distillers that seeks to combat drunk driving and underage drinking.

The topic is timely given national coverage of two dozen underage drinking arrests following a party hosted by the reigning Miss Connecticut Outstanding Teen, who also had been a volunteer for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

There are 10 students on the Chaminade team, 28 for HPU. The AAF is hopeful that the University of Hawaii, Honolulu Community College and BYU-Hawaii will be able to participate next year, Lam said.

From the winning team, five students and an adviser will be flown, expenses paid, to Washington D.C.

As motivation, Lam told the student teams “;that I already had set up a tour of Sen. Daniel Akaka's office”; and “;we have a tour of the White House”; as well.

While Hawaii students have yet to win the national competition, those who go on into the industry and become part of Ad 2 Honolulu repeatedly have kicked booty in the national Ad 2 competition.

Those finals are also to take place at the national conference.

Additionally, this year's Pele Award winners also will be up against work from other AAF districts in the national Addy Awards competition.