News : Clever Road Safety Film Scoops 4 Million viewers
A film showing a young female driver ploughing in to the back of stationary traffic because she is distracted by the antics of her passengers, has provoked strong debate about its authenticity amongst 4 million on-line viewers. And today, (Friday 6th), The Sun Online featured the film as its ‘Issue of the Day’ and asked viewers to come forward if they had been involved in the crash.
Further research by The Sun revealed that the thought provoking, ‘horrific’ film was in fact created as part of a young driver’s campaign commissioned by Road Safety for North West. This leading-edge road safety campaign body is made up of Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety, Drive Safe Greater Manchester Casualty Reduction Partnership and Merseyside Road Safety Partnership.
Said Linda Sanderson, Communications Manager for Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety: “We have put a lot of research into young driver behaviour, and messing about in cars and distractions because of the opposite sex featured highly in our findings. This short film illustrates exactly what the consequences of taking your eyes off the road, even for a second, can be. The film was very carefully shot to look as real as possible and seeded to video sharing sites in March. It has been outstandingly successful in attracting so many hits and being featured in this way by The Sun. We are sure the colossal exposure will boost viewings further and help spread the message: Keep Your Eyes On The Road.”
The film, known as Speed Dating, was produced for Road Safety North West by ST16 Ltd in Staffordshire, and has also just scooped ‘Best Digital Innovation’ at the Royal Television Society Midlands Award, 2009, beating entries from formidable companies such as the BBC.
Said Gill Roberts of Road SafetyGB: “We have incredibly talented communications experts working together across county borders, who are squeezing every penny’s worth out of tight road safety education budgets. This viral film method of social marketing using the internet is breaking new ground and proving itself extremely effective at carrying high impact messages to the target audience.”
Watch the film here and have your say: http://www.youtube.com/user/wastedlives100#p/u/6/RWa5eNdQ1KI
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Notes to Editors
For further information about how the film was made, images and to arrange interviews, please call The Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety Office on: 01772 534 531
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