The Pope thanks you for not driving buzzed
Holiday safe-driving PSA season is in full throttle. First, we had that great ad from New Mexico. Now, here's a spot from Mullen for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Ad Council. It shows a gal next door, Rachel, receiving honors from the Pope and the Dalai Lama for not driving buzzed. (Arnold Schwarzenegger is in the 30-second version, though standing so close to him seems more like a punishment to me.) In the big picture, do we really want to be grandiosely rewarding folks for not driving while intoxicated—i.e., for not behaving like selfish assholes? Maybe people should refrain from driving buzzed because, I dunno, it's the right think to do? Also, this high-powered talent might be put to better use. Seeing the Terminator all remorseful after getting drunk and mowing down several of the world's top spiritual leaders? Now that would be a PSA! —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on December 18, 2009 | Permalink
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In drunk-driving spot, there's no going backThe blood and gore of a thousand Australian PSAs can't match the intensity of this anti-drunk-driving spot by VWK in Albuquerque for the New Mexico Department of Transportation. This is almost a can't-miss category: The subject matter lends itself to powerful messages and stirring imagery. Yet, so much has been done, it's difficult to find a fresh approach. Well, we've found it here! Director Sean Broughton brilliantly shifts into reverse, starting at the story's end—which, in another twist, is not the accident itself. This method is jarring and unexpected enough to force us to consider the too-familiar car-crash scenario in a fresh light. Placing the bright party scene at the end deepens the sense of loss. The dead girl's palor is all the more upsetting because she seems sweet and almost shy as she speaks a single word to her father and sets the quick-cut flashback in motion. There's no hope of reversal. Her face will haunt his nightmares—and perhaps ours. Sobering. Via Ads of the World. —Posted by David Gianatasio
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Published on December 17, 2009 | Permalink
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Australia celebrates brutal road-safety PSAsNo one does horrifying safe-driving PSAs quite like the Australians. And now, to celebrate 20 years of making people feel sad and sick in the name of the public good, Victoria's Transport Accident Commission (with help from Grey Melbourne) has put together this greatest-hits music-video montage of nasty, depressing and brutal clips from its most disturbing commercials. It starts off a little slow, but really picks up around the one-minute mark. Death, despair, blood, guts, tears—it's all here! Relive all your worst nightmares this Christmas as you sing along to R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts." And remember to drive safely out there. —Posted by Tim Nudd
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Published on December 10, 2009 | Permalink
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Bikers dropping like flies in Norwegian PSA
This Norwegian PSA, encouraging car drivers to watch out for motorcycles, manages to be edgy, mildly disturbing and sort of silly—all while communicating its message about bikers: "We are small, but we're not bugs." The delightful nonchalance and obliviousness of the family in the car really sells it, and the subtle scattering of bodies is eerie in an apocalyptic, B-movie kind of way. The gore across the windshield, not overdone, is a great detail. This is kind of vexing, though: The cyclists wore their helmets, yet all still winded up dead. Maybe they should switch to SUVs. Sure, that'll spoil the environment, but at least they won't end up splayed across the front of a truck. By local ad agency Spilberg. Via Ads of the World. |
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Published on September 9, 2009 | Permalink
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Driving on drugs? They'll see it in your eyesThe U.K. this week launched its first-ever national ad campaign to stop people from driving on drugs. The centerpiece is the TV spot above, in which a pack of friends cruise around town, high on something or other, with their freaky big eyes evidently a dead giveaway for police. The ad's certainly memorable, even if it's exaggerated. (Only some drugs cause wildly dilated pupils, and nothing as cartoony as this, and the police would notice them only after a traffic stop, not from a distance.) It's also noteworthy for what it doesn't include: the kind of horror and violence we've come to expect from British road-safety ads. For that, you'll have to head over to Wales, where a local police force has scared the crap out of people worldwide with its grisly "Don't text and drive" video below. See also: |
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Published on August 18, 2009 | Permalink
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Driving on drugs is fairly safe until you stopNew Zealand's road-safety ads have their floppy corpses and their bleeding billboards, but Australia has plenty of its own safe-driving shockvertising. Specifically, Victoria's Transport Accident Commission excels at grisly advisories. The gruesome spot above, by Grey Melbourne, cautioning against smoking dope and driving, is no exception. It even tricks you into letting your guard down right before the end. Not to nitpick, but the driver was right to let his sober wife take the wheel, even if he did pick a crappy place to pull over. His ultimately cruel destiny, which could happen to someone who's just tired, not high, seems a bit random for anti-impairment message. TAC can keep you from making boneheaded decisions, but they probably can't do much when fate is out to screw you. |
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Published on July 13, 2009 | Permalink
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Drive safely in spite of the bloody billboardsWhat were we saying last week about New Zealand safe-driving campaigns? Oh yes, that they're insane. Here, the Papakura District Council resorts to "bloodvertising" to slow motorists down during the rainy season. Three big roadside billboards with children's faces on them are equipped with sensors that "bleed" red liquid when it rains. The effect is startling. Problem is, the kids look like they've been ravaged by syphilis rather than speeding cars. And if safety is the goal, shouldn't roadside ads be a little less distracting? Via Copyranter at Animal New York. |
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Published on July 1, 2009 | Permalink
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Another lovely New Zealand safe-driving ad
Ah, New Zealand road-safety ads. Always so subtle and understated, except when they show children's bloody heads smashed on windshields or, in the new PSA posted above, a dead guy flopping around and terrifying his injured buddy after their drunk-driving accident. The spot is meant to be brutally unsettling, but there is a bit of unintentional comedy—the dead guy's body looks a bit like a dummy at times. Though of course, the point is that both of the guys are dummies. The tagline is: "If you drink then drive you're a bloody idiot." By Clemenger BBDO in Wellington. |
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Published on June 24, 2009 | Permalink
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Yeah, killing a child will weigh on your mindHaving a good Monday so far? Well, here's a reliable downer for you: yet another British anti-speeding PSA featuring a dead kid! In the new spot, the U.K.'s Department for Transport, which specializes in dead and wounded children, shows a man being haunted by a boy he's killed while speeding. British road-safety minister Jim Fitzpatrick tells the Guardian that the point of the unsettling spot is to make viewers "consider the consequences of speeding" and think about "what life is like for the driver who kills because [he is] in a rush to get home." The newspaper sees echoes of The Sixth Sense here, though why anyone would base anything on an M. Night Shyamalan film is a mystery. Aren't there any good movies available to model this campaign after? Of course, now that I say that, they'll make a seat-belt ad based on Sophie's Choice. |
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Published on February 2, 2009 | Permalink
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Terrify the children into respecting the roadThere's something really creepy and awesome about these "Tales of the Road" animated rhyming PSAs from Leo Burnett London, encouraging kids in the U.K. to be safe near roadways. They have a great Edward Gorey/Gashlycrumb Tinies feel to them. The top one tells the sad tale of "The Boy Who Didn't Stop, Look and Listen." The bottom one bemoans the fate of "The Girl Who Didn't Dress Bright in the Dark." The actual inspiration for the campaign was evidently the Edwardian poet Hilaire Belloc, whose "Cautionary Tales" attempted to frighten young children into doing the right thing. (They included such timeless classics as "Matilda, Who told lies, and was burned to death" and "Jim, who ran away from his nurse, and was eaten by a lion.") We can barely wait for the third spot in the series: "The Boy Who Didn't Find a Safe Place to Cross." |
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Published on January 8, 2009 | Permalink
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