Super simple texting PSAs drive the point home

The premise of this 25-second PSA is so visually simple, it could have been a print ad. But the storytelling capability of video is put to good use building anticipation:

The First Global Pedestrian Safety Campaign: Make Walking Safe #roadsafety #walksafe

This is the first global campaign about pedestrian safety. Launched today because it is the beginning of the UN Global Road Safety Week (6-12 May).
It is made by Fabrica, the Benetton Group communications research centre. It was commissioned by the World Health Organization, the lead health agency of the United Nations.

“We Are All Pedestrians” was the mantra that drove the group of designers from Fabrica to work on the “Make Walking Safe” campaign. They took the popular pedestrian pictogram man as key figure.
The result: five posters portray a life-size pedestrian pictogram man in different guises on street crossings addressing the various major pedestrian safety issues: 270,000 pedestrians die each year; improving visibility can save pedestrian lives; sidewalks and other infrastructures are necessary; legislation and law enforcement are essential; safe walking improves both personal health and the environment.

No text is worth the risk

Is it the time of the year? This is the third ‘don’t text while driving’ campaign within a week.
And a completely different approach to the “text and walk” or “morgue photos”.

This campaign is from Brazil. Made for Dinisa, a local car sale and after-sale company.

The power of photography: Don’t Text And Die

This new campaign from OVK (de vereniging van Ouders van Verongelukte Kinderen / Parents of Road Victims) isn’t very exuberant and modern. The power is all done with great photography. The kind of images you pick unconsciously while on the road.
And that is exactly the intention. Because you should not be distracted. Just what happens when texting while driving.

The photography is done by world renowned contemporary artist Andres Serrano. Known from controversial works such as ‘Piss Christ’ and the ‘Morgue series’.
Andres: “As an artist I usually focus on my own work. It’s very rare that I’m asked to do commissioned work, so it’s a great pleasure for me to do something that goes out to the masses.”

“Don’t Text and Die” is a series of photographs in which Serrano depicts three different characters. At first glance they look dead, but when you look closer you discover they’re actually just looking at their phones.

The campaign made by Happiness Brussels not only aims to address a modern and universal issue, but also to bring attention to the work of Parents of Road Victims. Their main goals are the consolation of the families of road victims, and the prevention of future traffic accidents.

Interview with Andres Serrano about the campaign:

#homesafely

This is at least 2 months old, but the video case released this week does a better job explaining the road safety campaign than a blog post.

At Homesafely, people from Victoria, Australia, could send personalised ‘get home safely’ ads to friends and family while they were driving over the Christmas period.

A well thought media campaign, using word-of.mouth, out-of-home and radio, to impact people were it matters the most: while they were driving home.

Killer crotches on Alberta roads!

“Our goal is to get their attention, and to ultimately save lives, and the way to do that was to come up with a campaign that spoke to them and generated conversation,” Alberta Transportation’s Donna Babchishin told the CBC of her campaign’s 25- to 34-year-old male target audience. She has a point. A little naughty double-entendre goes a long way with the bros.

My favourite part of this campaign, however, is the web site it directs to, youarethecure.ca. It uses funky parallax scrolling effects to demonstrate all the road hazards you could miss in the five seconds you spend looking down at your lap while texting and driving. The site keeps it light, managing to put a guy in a gorilla suit and a kitty in with the cyclist, pedestrian and other motorist.

Brain on Board — a different way to look at safer driving

This is my own work (and that of my colleagues at Acart Communications) so I’m not reviewing it here so much as sharing.

Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF), Toyota Foundation and Acart partnered to launch a safer driving initiative that teaches Canadians how to use their vehicles’ advanced safety features more effectively. This is a reaction to research that shows some features are leading to overconfident — rather than safer — driving.

To get attention and engage audiences with out-of-home posters, we created visual puzzles that are a mix of rebus images and words. The objective is to draw the viewer’s curiosity, then engage them in using their own brains to decipher the headline. This is a mnemonic reminder that some things (like driving) need to be approached more thoughtfully.

The posters drive traffic to a campaign web site, brainonboard.ca, which is packed with TIRF’s research findings broken down for the public, with relevant information, statistics, and safer driving advice. The campaign is also social on Twitter and Facebook.

A well-done scary ad about running over children

I’m no fan of shock tactics, but this one does it right. The shock is not shown in violence, but with quiet and subtlety. The innocent image of a child playing, combined with the chilling implication of the chalk outline, really hit me as a parent. And the message is simple and true. The World Health Organization says that Pedestrians have a 90% chance of surviving a car crash at 30 km/h or below, but less than a 50% chance of surviving an impact of 45 km/h or above. Speed — even moderate speed — really does kill.

Data visualization with empty chairs: A place to remember

Click to enlarge.

This is data visualization with empty chairs. It was the Christmas Holiday campaign from TAC Road Safety, the Transport Accident Commission in Victoria region in Australia.

A 65m long table complete with 257 empty chairs sits as a grim reminder of the road toll in 2012. Each empty place remembers a life lost on Victorian roads. Tribute tweets and instagram shots were directed to #aplacetoremember. As the road toll rises chairs were added to the table. Over the time of the installation 6 chairs joined the table.

“This many people won’t make it to Christmas lunch.”

The po-po want you to “lock it or lose it”!

Around the holidays, shoppers are particularly vulnerable to parking lot thefts. Everyone has heard a story about a friend or family member who accidently left an unlocked car in a mall parking lot and returned to find their electronics or shopping stolen!

This holiday, the Waterloo Regional Police Service expanded on the OPP’s existing “Lock it or Lose It” safety campaign with this cheery video. It’s almost supernaturally cheery!

What the media release describes as “a timely and musical reminder to safeguard cars and valuables during the holiday season”, is actually quite cheeky with the lyrics.

Just hear those windows smashing and dashboards cracking yoo hoo (yoo hoo)!
Outside there’s someone waiting to make a victim of youuuu!
They stole your GPS, your phone, and presents too.
It could have been avoided, but you left your stuff in plain view!
Giddy up giddy up giddy up, let’s go. They call the Po-Po (5-0!).
Where your stuff will end up, we’ll never knooooow.
Giddy up giddy up giddy up, too bad. It’s gone and you’re sad!

——

A bit victim-blamey? I’m sure the good officers at the Waterloo Po-Po will make an attempt to find your “stuff” whether you locked your car or left something expensive-looking on the seat or not.

Police Chief Matt Torigian notes a need for increased awareness of this type of crime: “The statistics hit an all-time high this year with more than 400 incidents occurring in Waterloo Region throughout the month of July alone.”

Edited to correct the credits for the RIGHT Po-Po!

Not mentioned in the media release is the fact that “unique holiday video” was produced by the creatively-minded po-po in Victoria, Texas last holiday. Cambridge Times reports: “Victoria police reported a 51 per cent drop in thefts, indicating the humourous tactic was more successful than traditional lock it or lose it campaigns.” Ah Texas, that explains the bouffants!