Bleeding shame:::hard-hitting road safety ad

“Rain changes everything. Drive to the conditions”

BRAND:Papakura District Council

CATEGORY:Government/Public Sector

REGION:New Zealand

DATE:Apr 2009 - May 2009

OTHER AGENCIES:Colenso BBDO

MEDIA CHANNEL

The rains after the summer in New Zealand can be torrential, and have been known to cause many road accidents. Drivers don’t adapt their driving styles to accommodate the wet weather and often don’t realise how compromised their breaking abilities are until it is too late.

After a weekend in which 15 people were killed on the roads, the Papakura District Council decided to act quickly to warn drivers to slow down in rainy conditions in an attempt to reduce the road death toll. It developed a roadside billboard which showed a young boy’s face. When it rained, sensors in the billboard triggered fake blood to flow down the boy’s face – from his nose, ears and eyebrows. The message on the billboard read: “Rain changes everything. Please drive to the conditions.”

There were no deaths on the road in Papakura during the Easter period

Local and national media picked up the story, helping motorists everywhere make the connection between the weather conditions and their driving habits. The end result for Papakura District Council was a zero-fatality Easter season

Credits

The Bleeding Billboard was developed at Colenso BBDO, Auckland, by executive creative director Nick Worthington, art director Emmanuel Bougneres, agency producer Paul Courtney, account director Scott Coldham, account manager Janelle Van Wonderen, photographer Steven Boniface, and produced by Greg Skinner at Rollercoaster Design.