Last but not least: Social Potholes
The fight against potholes continues. This time, P4 Ogilvy is turning these unwelcome road hazards into Twitter stars.
Recently, at this point reports on an artist who, in protest against unrepaired potholes in England, spray-painted penises around the "cyclist traps," thereby miraculously prompting the authorities to take action.
As mentioned earlier, road damage is a serious problem in just about every country outside of Switzerland—one that bothers, annoys, and endangers the public day in and day out. That’s because in many places, nothing is being done about it. The result is damaged cars, frustrated drivers, and cyclists taking falls.
The same is true in Panama. In this Central American country, the television station Tele Metro has taken on the issue—knowing exactly what’s bothering viewers. They came up with a pretty clever solution devised by the agency P4 Ogilvy & Mather Panama City. Potholes on the main thoroughfares were equipped with sensors. Every time a car drives right through a sensor-equipped pothole, the device sends a Tweet, addressed to the responsible department. Nearly 1,000 tweets have already been sent, and the strategy—backed by the public and the media—seems to be paying off. Little by little, the gaps are disappearing. It just goes to show once again: If you don’t have a Twitter account these days, you’re hardly noticed. (hae)
