DfT campaign news round up

The latest news about current and future DfT campaigns and initiatives.

Teen cycle safety - Cyclesense
This poster, advertising and postcard campaign aimed at teenage boys certainly stirred up a hornets’ nest in some quarters when it broke in May.

Teenage boys are unlikely to wear cycle helmets and as such are over-represented in accident statistics. The campaign sets out to communicate the benefits of wearing a helmet - and the risks of not doing so.

But some cycling organisations described the campaign as irresponsible and claimed that it will damage cycling’s image as safe, enjoyable and healthy. The National Cycling Strategy Board claimed that the campaign could harm the DfT’s target of trebling cycle use by 2010.

But the campaign has been defended by the DfT’s Steven Bethel. "The posters were produced after research with 12-15 year old boys," he said. "They responded well to the humorous irreverent style and – crucially - the safety messages were also clearly understood."

The posters and ads drive traffic to a website, www.cyclesense.net, where more detailed safety information can be found.

Hedgehogs
The Think! team is in the process of developing a new commercial to sit alongside the existing popular hedgehog advertisements. The new treatment is currently in production and scheduled to be on air during the last week of August. The new approach emphasises the fact that children are often very familiar with their own surroundings but that traffic is totally unpredictable. More about this campaign in the coming weeks.

Teen TV advertising
This campaign – to encourage drivers to slow down and teenagers to take more care when crossing the road – is running every other week on satellite TV across the period May 2003 – March 2004. The campaign utilises three channels - MTV, Trouble, and E4 and is also running across various radio stations, June 2003 - March 2004. There are also various size posters for RSOs to use to compliment the campaign. They can be ordered from the Think! website, www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk

Summer drink drive campaign
The Think! summer drink drive campaign kicks off on national television on Monday 7 July and runs until Sunday 27 July. In addition, there will be a radio campaign running nationally at weekends (Thursday – Sunday) from 24 July until 31 August. The radio campaign will then continue on Talksport during live sporting fixtures between August 2003 and March 2004.

"During the summer people – young men in particular – may be tempted to have a couple of drinks in the pub or garden or at a barbecue and then drive," says the DfT’s Glyn Robinson. "The TV ad reminds young men that even a couple of drinks can affect judgement and driving ability."

The new ‘Bicycle’ TV commercial moves away from the harrowing crash scenes that have started to lose their impact with the core target audience of 17 – 25 year old males. "Research shows that young men find it easy to opt out of drinking and driving messages because they think the carnage they see in commercials must apply to very drunk drivers," Glyn Robinson explains. "The emphasis in this campaign is on ‘drink’ driving, not ‘drunk’ driving."

The radio campaign features two creative approaches – one using humour and the other utilising urban poetry.

The urban poetry ads feature Galliano’s Rob Gallagher performing poetic lyrics against music composed for the campaign. The ads, Only and Time to Kill, emphasise the severe penalties for drink driving and talk to the target audience in their own language, without preaching or resorting to shock tactics.

The Badjobs, Dodd Gee and Carrupt commercials employ humour - the campaign sets out to entertain rather than chastise. The campaign highlights the risk of getting caught and takes the consequences to the extreme through a series of spoof services that drink drivers might need.

Campaign posters can be ordered online at: www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/catalogue/index.

The radio commercials can be found at: www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/drinkdrive/index.htm#5.

A drink drive mobile display, depicting scenes from the Bicycle television commercial, can be delivered, erected and collected free of charge. Please phone Jacqui Malcolm on 020 7944 4687 to arrange this.

Seatbelts
A seatbelt campaign using a TV ad and online activity will break in early September 2003. Details of the campaign are under embargo until 8 September, but two communications briefing sheets are posted in the members’ section of this website.

A briefing sheet for each of these campaigns is posted in a new section, DfT communications, in the members’ section of this website. The members’ section is password protected – that password is available from LARSOA secretary Brian Hogarth, bhogarth@bun.com.