Unique Public Transport & Road Safety Online Campaigns

“And all the while I feel like I’m standing in the middle of a crowded room, screaming at the top of my lungs, and no one even looks up.”  This pretty well sums up most of the safety and public transport campaigns ( usually loaded with heavy messages ) that we often come across. Most of the campaigns are stark and bereft of any color, which may be why they are normally ignored by a lot of young people. But here’re a few unique and different online campigns that we stumbled upon – 

1)  Dumb Ways To Die: 

• Sell both your kidneys on the internet• Poke a stick at a grizzly bear• Eat medicine that’s out of date• Use your private parts as piranha bait• And many more!  A list of silly, dumb and reckless ways to die – yes, this quirky campaign gives you a list of ideas that people can do to kill themselves. This safety campaign launched by Metro Trains in Melbourne which partnered with advertising agency McCann Melbourne spreads the message : “be safe around trains” in a simple, interactive and different way.  The song starts with dumb ideas to die like setting fire to your hair, inviting a psycho killer to your house, disturbing a nest of wasps and then moving on to doing stupid and reckless things at railway stations like “running across the tracks between the platforms”. 

What’s unique about Dumb Ways to Die?

Colorful blobs, catchy lyrics and addictive tune – all go into making this video viral. It’s fetched more than 60 million views till date. The video shows blobs dying while trying stupid things from – “keeping rattlesnake as a pet”, “eating a tube of superglue” to  “driving around the boom gates at a level crossing and “running across the tracks between the platforms”. The idea for the song started from a very simple premise: “What if we disguised a worthy safety message inside something that didn’t feel at all like a safety message?” said McCann executive creative director John Mescall. “So we thought about what the complete opposite of a serious safety message would be and came to the conclusion it was an insanely happy and cute song.” Well, the campaign doesn’t stop at the video. They’ve a website from where you can download the song and share it with your friends. Indeed a very powerful way to spread the message – trains are big and you don’t mess with them! 

2) Grow with Public Transport –

An initiative of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), the campaign highlights the need of better public transport and how efficient and sustainable public transport benefits the society, environment and economy of a country.  As cities grow in population, space and level of economic activity, commuting from one place to another become one of the biggest problems.  A viable solution can be – developing sustainable transport modes and supporting investment in public transport.   What message does the campaign spread? • Travel grows smooth with public transport • City economies grow dynamic with public transport• Communities grow together with public transport • Winning cities grow with public transport.  A Few Facts on Public Transportation –• In the U.S. it saves around 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline annually—which is more than 11 million gallons of gasoline per day. • Households that use public transportation save an average of $6,251 every year.  (source – conserve-energy-future) 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=cFxaLVp5ReY

3) Think! about road safety 

The Department of Transport in the United Kingdom came up with Think!,  a website aimed at making road users aware of road safety information. As hundreds of thousands of people get injured and killed by road accidents each year, this initiative was meant to make travelling on the road a safer affair.  Through this website exclusively dedicated to road safety, they encouraged safe behavior by road users. The site shared useful and informative knowledge on drunken driving, using mobile phones while driving, importance of using seatbelts, guidelines for motorcyclists and cyclists, control of speed and forbade drivers to sit at the steering wheel with a fatigued mind and body. It also narrated tales of the road, an interesting read for the viewers.  To educate the masses in a simple yet interactive way they have come up with quizzes, road safety games and driving challenge games. 

4) Get Drunk and Get Driven, says YamrajThe revellers of Chennai had a surprise date with Yamraj, as they came out of Zara Tapas Bar one evening in early 2013. An initiative of Zara and the Chennai Traffic Police, this campaign was conceived to communicate to the common people how drunken driving can prove to be fatal. As soon as the individuals got into their cars at the valet parking outside the eatery, they were greeted by a monstrous looking, heavily decked up individual, replicating Yamraj at the backseat. After the initial shock had receded, they were handed out a “Drink and Get Driven” leaflet with a clear warning against drunken driving.  Owing to the impact of the campaign, it soon attracted attention of the people of the city. It has featured on social media, including Facebook and Twitter, while the video garnered440,801 views, 1000+ likes and comments on Youtube.

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