Good or Bad road safety advert?

ellieb
ellieb Posts: 436
edited June 2009 in Commuting chat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7COwwbhB4Yg
From America

Comments

  • Eau Rouge
    Eau Rouge Posts: 1,118
    I think the context here is important. This is made by, and targeted at, New York City's drivers. It'll probably only ever run on TV stations that only broadcast in the New York City area.
    From my limited experience in Boston, there is a certain expectation and almost acceptance of being involved in minor traffic accidents, "fender benders" they call them, at some point among city drivers there, and I'm pretty sure it's the same in NYC.

    In that context, the ad, specifically to advise New York city drivers that the sort of incident that would be a minor irritation between two cars is a whole lot more serious when it involves a cyclist, makes a good deal more sense, and goes a long way to balancing out the "cycling is dangerous" undertone.

    Run nationally, in either the US or elsewhere, it loses the NYC driver context and it's undertones of danger become a lot more significant.
  • always_tyred
    always_tyred Posts: 4,965
    Eau Rouge wrote:
    I think the context here is important. This is made by, and targeted at, New York City's drivers. It'll probably only ever run on TV stations that only broadcast in the New York City area.
    From my limited experience in Boston, there is a certain expectation and almost acceptance of being involved in minor traffic accidents, "fender benders" they call them, at some point among city drivers there, and I'm pretty sure it's the same in NYC.

    In that context, the ad, specifically to advise New York city drivers that the sort of incident that would be a minor irritation between two cars is a whole lot more serious when it involves a cyclist, makes a good deal more sense, and goes a long way to balancing out the "cycling is dangerous" undertone.

    Run nationally, in either the US or elsewhere, it loses the NYC driver context and it's undertones of danger become a lot more significant.
    Same everywhere as far as I can tell. I think the message translates pretty well.
  • lost_in_thought
    lost_in_thought Posts: 10,563
    I think it's good...
    FCN 7/1
    Viner Maxima, Tifosi CK7, Giant Bowery, Old commuter.
  • crankycrank
    crankycrank Posts: 1,830
    I think it's great they're at least making an effort but it seems all of our awareness ads here are just white noise to most people. Every time an anti-drug or teen pregnancy campaign starts it seems to have the opposite effect. The most effective attention getter is to increase fines and take away driving privileges for bad drivers. Hopefully I'm wrong on this and the ads prevent some injuries, but I doubt it.

Categories