For decades, governments around the globe have used advertising campaigns to try and change driver behaviour. The vast majority rely on shock, depicting the often graphic consequences of a motor vehicle accident, while others aim to attach a stigma to certain behaviours. Whether or not either variety of advertisement is effective continues to be the topic of debate among the public and road safety experts.
WARNING: Some of the ads below feature graphic images and/or mild coarse language
“Everybody hurts”: 20 years of TAC Campaigns
Victoria’s Traffic Accident Commission (TAC) have spent more than two decades building a reputation for some of the nation’s most confronting road safety advertisements. In 2009, the TAC posted a compliation of 20 years’ worth of ads online. It has been viewed more than 14 million times.
“One distraction is all it takes”
Cinemagoers got more than they expected earlier this year, when the Scottish Government and Road Safety Scotland aired a road safety ad with a twist in theatres in Dunfermline and Aberdeen. The short ad, which aimed to highlight the perils of driver distraction, featured two young men in a car who would have a conversation with a member of the cinema audience shortly before crashing.
“Embrace Life”
This ad, by the UK’s Sussex Safer Roads, proved that less can be more when it comes to road safety advertising. Filmed entirely in a suburban living room, it featured no cars and no roads and only three people as it delivered a message about seatbelt use.
It has been viewed more than 15 million times on YouTube and won several advertising and road safety awards.
“No one thinks big of you”
In 2010, the then-NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA), launched a campaign that took aim at young drivers – and a certain part of the male anatomy. Coloquially known as the ‘’pinkie campaign’’, the campaign featured a series of TV ads that offered a way for the public to show their disapproval of speeding drivers using nothing more than their pinkie finger.
The campaign won several advertising awards, sparked community debate and was even used as a legal defence by a Sydney man who claimed he threw a bottle at a woman’s car after he saw her giving him ‘’the little pinkie’’.
“Don’t be a d*ckhead”
Victoria’s VicRoads courted controversy in 2010 when it launched a campaign that blended road safety with comedy. Among the highlights of the campaign was an ad that threatened to ‘’turn off Facebook’’ if drivers didn’t wear seat belts, while another played on racial stereotypes to deliver a message about driver distraction.
The campaign caused such a stir that it was canned within months. VicRoads pulled the ads off their official YouTube channel, but not before the videos were copied and reposted.