New THINK! seatbelts cinema ad to debut early next month

A new THINK! campaign to persuade drivers and passengers to always wear a seatbelt in the front and rear of vehicles - even on short journeys – will break early next month.

"Nine per cent of car drivers still fail to belt up for every journey," says the DfT’s Dawn Lauder. "Men are the worst offenders, with 88 per cent belting up compared to 95 per cent of women. Almost a third of people (32 per cent) don’t always belt up in the back and one in ten never bother.

The new cinema ad conveys the fact that while a car is designed to crumple on impact, a face isn’t. The commercial opens with a dramatic close up of a man’s head with solemn expression, with one side of his face appearing to be dented as if it were metal. ‘Panels’ in the man’s head then begin to pop back into place, with the unusual visual heightened by metallic sound effects. This continues until his face has returned to its normal state.

"Building on this arresting visual the film then reveals the message, ‘Your car is designed to crumple on impact. Your face isn’t’ - leaving the viewer with the realisation of what might happen if they don’t buckle up," Dawn says.

The new 30" commercial will make its debut on 7 November in ‘The Matrix Revolutions’.

A briefing note about this campaign can be found in the members’ section of this website, under ‘DfT Communications’. The members’ section is password protected – LARSOA members can obtain the password from the Association’s secretary Brian Hogarth, bhogarth@bun.com