Think! team unveils details of forthcoming campaigns

The Think! team has unveiled details of a number campaigns it will be running in the coming months. The campaigns are as follows:-

Don’t Drive Tired
With Easter fast approaching a new burst of Don't Drive Tired radio advertising is imminent.

According to Think! publicity manager Glyn Robinson, around 20 per cent of crashes on motorways and other main roads are fatigue related. "If you nod off for just six seconds doing 70mph you will have travelled about 1/8th of a mile - and the consequences could be devastating," she says.

The campaign strategy is to increase awareness over the holiday period of the dangers of nodding off at the wheel, and to urge people to take a break every two hours. It will comprise two 30 second radio commercials illustrating how long six seconds is and how far a vehicle would travel in that time.

The commercials will appear on national radio Thursday 8 to Monday 12 April inclusive. Don't Drive Tired messages will also appear on VMS during the Easter holiday period.

The Hedgehogs are back…
April and May see the Easter and Whitsun breaks across the country, during which many children will be playing outside more frequently. To coincide with this, the Hedgehogs make a return to TV and cinema screens and feature on two new posters.

In 2002, 79 child pedestrians were killed and 2749 were seriously injured.

The campaign will comprise advertising on terrestrial and satellite channels and cinema advertising in all main cinema chains.

The 20-second television commercial, Green Man, reminds children to continue to take care at crossings even when the signal has changed. The campaign will run during the first two weeks of April, the last two weeks of May and the first week of June.

The 40-second cinema commercial, Knowing the Road, reminds children that familiar roads can still be dangerous and unpredictable.

The commercial will appear in conjunction with suitable films including The Cat in Hat, Agent Cody Banks 2 and Scooby Doo 2. The cinema campaign will run across April and for the first two weeks of May.

The two new posters, which are available in A4, A3 and A2 sizes, remind children that familiar roads can still be dangerous, and not to cross behind buses. The posters are available from the DfT free literature centre. The order numbers are Tinf911a/b/c (Watch out even on roads you know) and Tinf912a/b/c (Warning don't cross if you can't see what's coming).

Think Slow down
In a bid to encouraging drivers to Think! Slow down a TV campaign will run in May.

"Nearly ten people die every day on Britain's roads and speeding - or driving too fast for the conditions - is by far the biggest single contributory factor," says Lisa Gossage, Think! publicity manager.

"About two thirds of all accidents in which people are killed or injured happen on built-up roads where the speed limit is 40mph or less," Lisa Gossage adds. "Two thirds of car drivers regularly break the 30 mph speed limit and half of these by more than five miles per hour."

The current TV Think! Slow down advert, which focuses on stopping distances, will feature in the campaign. The commercial shows a car being driven at 35mph, and failing to stop in time - and as a result striking a dummy of a child. If the car had been travelling at 30mph the driver would have been able to stop in time.

Teenage pedestrians
The final campaign addresses the issue of teenage pedestrian road safety.

"Traffic is the biggest single killer of 12-16 year olds - statistics show that they are twice as likely to be knocked down as toddlers," says Lisa Gossage. "In 2002, 35 teenage pedestrians aged 12-15 years were killed on the roads.

"One in two teenagers knows someone their own age who has been in a road accident. Most commonly they get hurt because they're distracted - on the phone or sending a text," Lisa Gossage concludes.

The campaign will comprise satellite TV and cinema advertising targeted at teenage audiences. The commercial was originally created for cinema and shows a teenage boy portrayed as a ghost looking on at his friends - wondering why they are ignoring him. A car passes straight through him and the boy says: 'That's the second time that has happened to me this week…"

The campaign will run on satellite TV 3-30 May inclusive and in cinemas during May, July and August.

For further information about any of these campaigns, or to view commercials, go to www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk. Alternatively visit the DfT communications page in the members’ section of this website.