NI Road Safety Ad "Classroom"

[Andy_Bangle]

[Cuprabob]

It certainly gets the message across.

[patently]

Well, it certainly grabs the heartstrings and yanks them.

 

But these sorts of adverts do make me wonder.  In this one, at the point of the accident the Golf is not just speeding, it is going so fast that it can go into an oversteering slide, lift both inside wheels, and punch cleanly through a solid stone wall.  Yet a moment earlier it looks like it is doing 35 in a 30, maybe?  Sorry, but my bullshit detector is screaming at this point.  

 

Also, has this ever actually happened?  OK, maybe not the picnicking schoolkids getting squashed, but someone a bit over the limit losing it so spectacularly that they go through a drystone wall roof first?  If it hasn't*, maybe that suggests that the scenario is a little overblown?

 

And that is I think what gets to me about these adverts.  By creating an entirely artificial and apparently unlikely scenario, the message it gets across (to me at least) is that the authorities need to invent a big scary monster in order to frighten us into obeying the rules.  That, for me, actually reduces the respect I have for those rules.  The public-service messages that work on me are the ones where there is a bit of credibility.  The ones where, at the end, instead of "Shame on you", they can say "This happened on dd/mm/yyyy at xyz. Don't let it happen again."

 

 

 

 

*if it has, then clearly I'm in the wrong here and I sincerely hope the school trip had been fortuitously cancelled the day before...

[Andy_Bangle]

Golf, I missed the golf? I think the point of the ad is to pay attention  

[NewNiceMrMe]

I think it is superb.  The precise nature of accidents isn't the issue.  It emphasises the happiness and innocence of children, wrecked.

 

Seeing individual accident reports has impact, but not as much as realising it amounts to an entire classroom of children over a reasonably short period of time.

 

I think they've produced an excellent representation in an innovative way.

 

Patently needs to spend more time on observation, because as Andy points out....that Vauxhall Astra is the strangest looking VW Golf I've ever seen.

[Tipex]

I'm with Patently on this one, if the proposed accident is so beyond the realms of possibility, it reduces the impact of what would otherwise have been an excellent message.

Cars just don't throw themselves off the road for no apparent reason these days, even Vauxhalls have stability control these days, it would prevent exactly that kind of thing happening if it ever even happened in the first place, which it didn't

My favourite* advert in terms of impact, is the australian one, where the ad goes in to slow mo, and the drivers of the cars get out and talk before the accident, that works very, very well imo.

*not sure favourite is the right word really.

Edited June 22, 2014 by Tipex

[patently]

Astra/Golf/whatever. Generic Eurobox, then

Have to agree with Tipex re the Aussie ad, that was much better done and made me stop and think about the accident and the message they were trying to get across. This one made me stop and think about how it didn't add up and the children are obviously devices to provoke sympathy and I'm being manipulated and... and...

You have to think about who you are trying to talk to. Most of the drivers this is targeted at are, I think, people who either think that the rules don't apply to them or that their drivin' skillz mean they are immortal. So show them an ad which shows how it can all go wrong despite that (such as the Aussie ad), not one where an unrealistic situation has had to be invented Hollywood-style.

What this one is good at is reminding us of the cost of these tragedies and that a child's life is precious and fragile. But I kind of know that already - I don't drive around thinking "well, a few kids might cop it, but they're only kids".