Carnival Cruise Line earned the prestigious Public Relations Society of America New York (PRSA-NY) Chapter’s Big Apple Award in the marketing consumer services: travel and tourism category for Honor.Family.Fun, a comprehensive year-long public relations campaign in 2016.

The campaign brought together Operation Homefront, the national nonprofit that builds strong, stable and secure military families, and seven-time Grammy Award-winning country music superstar Carrie Underwood to introduce the line’s newest ship, Carnival Vista, as part of its U.S. debut in New York last November.  The award was presented earlier this week at the PRSA-NY’s chapter conference in New York.

The Big Apple Awards recognize superior achievement in public relations campaigns and projects developed or implemented in and around New York City.   More than 160 entries were evaluated by teams comprised of senior level communications practitioners representing a broad range of disciplines and expertise.

Coordinated by Carnival’s in-house public relations and communications teams and the company’s outside PR firm, M Booth, Honor.Family.Fun. was designed to support U.S. military families.  Carrie Underwood met with military families during stops on her Storyteller Tour and invited them to be among the 1,000 military families who enjoyed a special pierside concert aboard Carnival Vista prior to the ship’s inaugural U.S. sailing from the Manhattan Cruise Passenger Terminal.

In addition to the concert, the festivities included overnight accommodations, meals, activities and entertainment for participating military families. The event also included the ship’s official naming with Deshauna Barber – the first woman serving in the U.S. military to be named Miss USA – presiding over the ceremonies as godmother and releasing the ceremonial bottle of champagne that smashed over the hull of the massive 133,500-ton ship.

Special Honor.Family.Fun. dog tags were also sold at Underwood’s concerts and across the Carnival fleet with proceeds benefiting Operation Homefront.