A helicopter rarely comes alone

 
Winter sports Advico Young & Rubicam flies 1000 rescue helicopters for the BfU. 
The lack of awareness seems surprising, although it is widespread. As part of the research for their creative work, CDs Urs Schrepfer and Christian Bobs conducted a survey at AY&R: How many skiing accidents are there in Switzerland every day? Estimates ranged between 20 and 100, but the correct answer from the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (BfU) must have startled us: On average, 1000 snow sports accidents happen every day in winter. All respondents were totally perplexed when this figure was presented. And it is precisely this reaction that the creatives at AY&R have now taken as the basis for a new commercial.
 
The sun is shining, snow sports enthusiasts are enjoying themselves against an impressive mountain backdrop, but a muffled noise makes them look up. The shadow of a helicopter moves over the snow and people. More and more shadows appear and suddenly the sky is full of machines. 1000 Rega helicopters thunder over the snow sports enthusiasts. The message "1000 accidents a day. Protect yourself with a helmet.".
The spot could be seen for the first time last weekend at the Freestyle.ch mega-event on Zurich's Landiwiese - together with real helicopters: four machines appeared in the sky in front of around 15,000 spectators, hovering over the lake for several minutes before they flew on over the heads of the amazed crowd and the new spot with another 1,000 animated helicopters amazed the audience on a huge screen.
The campaign and commercial are complemented by posters, advertisements, activities on the slopes and the website www.schuetzdich.ch. The website was designed and realized in collaboration with Futurecom. With the campaign, the BfU aims to increase the proportion of helmet-wearing snow sports enthusiasts by around ten percent over the next three winter seasons up to March 2010.
Andreas Panzeri