EXECUTING EFFECTIVE ROAD SAFETY ADVERTISING

This paper reviews the evidence for the contribution of advertising and publicity in road safety programs. It is concluded that advertising and publicity have an independent additional impact when accompanied by visible enforcement activities. The paper reports the results of an evaluation of 12 road safety television commercials (TVCs) using standard advertising pre-test procedures. The 12 ads covered a variety of road safety behaviours and executional types within each behaviour, and included a mix of ads from 30 seconds to 90 seconds, and a variety of production costs. The results showed that while the two best performing ads were highly emotional ads showing dramatic crash scenes, these were also the most expensive. In several cases, low cost 'talking heads' testimonials performed as well as their far more expensive counterparts. It is concluded that big production budgets are not necessary to create effective road safety advertising. The paper concludes with a model of the roles of advertising in road safety programs, suggestions for increasing research into why most drivers obey road rules, and a comment on community involvement in comprehensive approaches to road safety. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E206108.