Safety campaigns are a tough sell if only for the reason that often times the message is self evident. As such, people are prone to ignoring it.
Don't do drugs... umm, ya, I already know that.
Drive safe... ummm, of course.
Don't drink and drive... no kidding.
Yet, despite their agreement, people will do drugs, drive unsafe and drink and drive. Not everyone mind you, but often times those that heed the safety warnings are folks that would behave responsibly anyway. And the folks committing the dangerous acts often times aren't internalizing the safety message for a particular behavior, it's not getting through to them.
We could discuss the dozens of reasons this occurs (because it's not a simple, single antecedent issue), but I believe in large part it's because the safety messages they've been exposed to failed to make a large enough impression within their neural network (ie. their brain / mind) as to become not only memorable but truisms to conduct future behavior by. They failed to internalize the message.
I'm sure over my lifetime I've been exposed to dozens, if not hundreds of safety / environmental messages and yet only a few of them have ever stuck in my brain.
Give a Hoot Don't Pollute
It's funny, the phrase 'give a hoot don't pollute' probably has more to do with my urge to recycle than anything else, and yet, 'give a hoot don't pollute' actually has nothing to do with recycling.
Regardless though, this campaign stuck with me decades after it ran.
Your Brain on Drugs
I don't know why I remember this commercial, but that slogan 'This is your brain on drugs' is still stuck in my neural network decades after I first saw it. I think as a kid it presented a stark visual that answered the question "What happens when you do drugs?"
Dumb Ways To Die
And this brings us to the safety ad that I thought was perhaps the best I've seen in decades - Dumb Ways To Die. The ad is for rail safety, yet you wouldn't know it until you got to the end of the video.
They've done an amazing job of making a 'fun' video that captures the viewer's interest through a catchy song and funny cartoon. The video hit YouTube only a month ago and already has 32 million hits.
What's so genius about this safety ad is that it's not in your face, which is so antithetical to how you think a safety ad should be.
What they've done that is more important than anything else in a safety ad which is they've made it memorable and easy to internalize.
Also, most safety ads focus purely on one aspect of safety. The reasons for this are obvious, if you have funding to talk about drinking and driving then you can't spend your money talking about other safety issues (that's not what the money was given to you for).
Funding has a lot to do with how safety ads are made in my opinion. DON'T DO DRUGS! is a pretty clear message that let's you say 'We spent the money on promoting the message DON'T DO DRUGS!" And those funding the initiative can say they put out a strong message against drug use. And these forms of campaigns do work to varying degrees, so I'm not criticizing this method.
I mention this merely to provide context as to why Dumb Ways To Die is such an innovative way of reaching people with a safety message, because it's anything but your traditional messaging strategy.
So kudos to the folks that created this ad - Metro Trains Melbourne out of Australia - for breaking out of that mould and using their budget to talk about 'safety' in general. Doing so only makes the final 'rail safety' message that more powerful.
This was a high risk creative gamble for a variety of reasons:
- If folks didn't like the song, the ad would go nowhere
- If the folks didn't like the cartoon, the ad would go nowhere
- If the folks didn't like the video enough to watch it to the end, then the rail safety message wouldn't be heard
So if it had failed creatively, people would probably be saying 'what a waste of money.' So you can
Yet, despite those gambles they went ahead and made the video and hit it out of the park... 32 million views in one month is mind boggling for a safety ad! And not only did they do a service for their target audience (folks in Melbourne I'm assuming) but the safety message reached around the world.
In addition, because it's so memorable, those that view it, when they find themselves around railway tracks, will probably find the song popping in to their head and remembering that certain behaviors around railway tracks will lead to 'dumb ways to die'.
The lesson for PR folks here? Interesting is, well, interesting! So try your best to bend the ears of the folks you work with to take a little risk now and then, because the payback can be astronomical.
Don't do drugs... umm, ya, I already know that.
Drive safe... ummm, of course.
Don't drink and drive... no kidding.
Yet, despite their agreement, people will do drugs, drive unsafe and drink and drive. Not everyone mind you, but often times those that heed the safety warnings are folks that would behave responsibly anyway. And the folks committing the dangerous acts often times aren't internalizing the safety message for a particular behavior, it's not getting through to them.
We could discuss the dozens of reasons this occurs (because it's not a simple, single antecedent issue), but I believe in large part it's because the safety messages they've been exposed to failed to make a large enough impression within their neural network (ie. their brain / mind) as to become not only memorable but truisms to conduct future behavior by. They failed to internalize the message.
I'm sure over my lifetime I've been exposed to dozens, if not hundreds of safety / environmental messages and yet only a few of them have ever stuck in my brain.
Give a Hoot Don't Pollute
It's funny, the phrase 'give a hoot don't pollute' probably has more to do with my urge to recycle than anything else, and yet, 'give a hoot don't pollute' actually has nothing to do with recycling.
Regardless though, this campaign stuck with me decades after it ran.
Your Brain on Drugs
I don't know why I remember this commercial, but that slogan 'This is your brain on drugs' is still stuck in my neural network decades after I first saw it. I think as a kid it presented a stark visual that answered the question "What happens when you do drugs?"
Dumb Ways To Die
And this brings us to the safety ad that I thought was perhaps the best I've seen in decades - Dumb Ways To Die. The ad is for rail safety, yet you wouldn't know it until you got to the end of the video.
They've done an amazing job of making a 'fun' video that captures the viewer's interest through a catchy song and funny cartoon. The video hit YouTube only a month ago and already has 32 million hits.
What's so genius about this safety ad is that it's not in your face, which is so antithetical to how you think a safety ad should be.
What they've done that is more important than anything else in a safety ad which is they've made it memorable and easy to internalize.
Also, most safety ads focus purely on one aspect of safety. The reasons for this are obvious, if you have funding to talk about drinking and driving then you can't spend your money talking about other safety issues (that's not what the money was given to you for).
Funding has a lot to do with how safety ads are made in my opinion. DON'T DO DRUGS! is a pretty clear message that let's you say 'We spent the money on promoting the message DON'T DO DRUGS!" And those funding the initiative can say they put out a strong message against drug use. And these forms of campaigns do work to varying degrees, so I'm not criticizing this method.
I mention this merely to provide context as to why Dumb Ways To Die is such an innovative way of reaching people with a safety message, because it's anything but your traditional messaging strategy.
So kudos to the folks that created this ad - Metro Trains Melbourne out of Australia - for breaking out of that mould and using their budget to talk about 'safety' in general. Doing so only makes the final 'rail safety' message that more powerful.
This was a high risk creative gamble for a variety of reasons:
- If folks didn't like the song, the ad would go nowhere
- If the folks didn't like the cartoon, the ad would go nowhere
- If the folks didn't like the video enough to watch it to the end, then the rail safety message wouldn't be heard
So if it had failed creatively, people would probably be saying 'what a waste of money.' So you can
Yet, despite those gambles they went ahead and made the video and hit it out of the park... 32 million views in one month is mind boggling for a safety ad! And not only did they do a service for their target audience (folks in Melbourne I'm assuming) but the safety message reached around the world.
In addition, because it's so memorable, those that view it, when they find themselves around railway tracks, will probably find the song popping in to their head and remembering that certain behaviors around railway tracks will lead to 'dumb ways to die'.
The lesson for PR folks here? Interesting is, well, interesting! So try your best to bend the ears of the folks you work with to take a little risk now and then, because the payback can be astronomical.
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