The click that saves lives

Traffic If the Swiss were better at wearing seat belts, there would be fewer road casualties. A campaign has been launched to raise awareness of the issue.
For years, Swiss roads have been in poor condition despite the booming
individual traffic has become safer. While accidents in this
period rose by around 1 percent to 67680, the number of people traveling by car
fatal accidents fell by almost 40 percent to 232. With
an additional improvement in the figures thanks to the reduction in the
limit at the beginning of this year. In the
In an international comparison, Switzerland, with 36 fatalities, is approaching
car drivers per million inhabitants the safest countries Great Britain
with 31 and Japan with 17. To achieve such values, however, requires
There is still a lot of work to be done to raise awareness.
These are provided by the Swiss Counseling Center for
accident prevention (bfu), the TCS, the Road Safety Council and the
Fund for Road Safety with a new, broad-based
Compulsory seatbelt wearing campaign. Over the next three years, the
multi-stage communication package helps to increase the seatbelt wearing rate.
increase. According to the bfu head of communications, this is where organizations
Ueli Moser still sees great potential. In a more recent
In a comparison of the three countries, the conscientious Swiss fall well behind.
In France, as in Germany, the carrying rate for drivers is
of all road types (highway, extra-urban and urban) is lowest for
91 percent. However, in addition to advertising campaigns, repressive
controls are used. In Switzerland, where seat belts have been compulsory since 1981
the rate is not even as high on the highways (90%).
In urban areas, it even drops to 74 percent.
In concrete terms, this means "that statistically 60 deaths and a good
210 fewer serious injuries would have been recorded in the
Switzerland has a 100 percent wear rate," explains Moser. Illusory?
Those responsible are in good spirits, because the conditions are right
they are positive. On the one hand, even in the "reluctant" regions
Ticino and French-speaking Switzerland (see table) more and more car drivers
systematically responsible, on the other hand the car industry promotes
with their innovations the wearing of the belts, and the younger ones
Motorists are much more aware of the problem.

Comedy instead of a warning finger
With a strategy that focuses on eliminating the false subjective
risk perception, the Geneva-based agency Saatchi &
Saatchi Simko won the pitch for the prestigious account. CD
Olivier Girard and AD Philippe Schwaar chose a game with
Absurdities as a creative concept for three TV and eight radio commercials as well as
Posters, advertisements, website, leaflet and below-the-line measures that
The campaign should be updated from the second year onwards.
The Saatchi team realized that neither a well-behaved info nor a
would be an option for a realistic shock campaign because it is not
would be sustainable or because of the low acceptance threshold for black
humor would meet with rejection. "The message is intended to shock,
but not the pictures," describes Jan de Schepper, Account Director
at S&S Simko, the challenge. The new form of expression found
the creatives in grotesque, symbolic comparisons with which the
consequences of driving without a seatbelt. In doing so
they entice the viewers of the TV commercials with action and lovely
Music on the wrong track. The protagonists walk faster and faster,
until they thunder into an obstacle, crash into parked cars or
through shop windows. With a question from the off, the
Stunts dissolved: "Do you think that's absurd? It's just as absurd to
not to wear a seatbelt. - A bond for life."
On the same platform, the radio commercials challenge listeners,
to try out crazy driving experiments. More sober, on the other hand, because for
the flanking posters and the accompanying information material were
Advertisements implemented. Here, numbers are intended to create the "cinema in the head" effect.
generate.    

Luca Aloisi