Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Graphic television ads to target city speeders
Modelled after commercials in the U.K.
A graphic, bloody television ad campaign modelled after similar United Kingdom commercials will try to shock Winnipeg drivers into respecting the speed limit.
The two commercials show a group of distracted youths and a harried young father speeding before their vehicles crash, leaving them smashed and bloody. In both spots, the sound of crying women can be heard as the commercials close.
The two commercials were filmed in British Columbia last November.
They'll hit three local television stations this month, showing about 165 times during hit shows like The Office, Saturday Night Live and Law and Order: Cold Case.
"I think we want people to understand that these aren't sterile situations that you're going into. These are the type of situations where they're extremely horrific and the people that actually experience them, the impact has had a ripple effect throughout the entire community," said Winnipeg police central traffic unit commander Staff Sgt. Mark Hodgson.
The campaign is modelled after a four-minute advertisement in the United Kingdom that featured three young women being thrown around a car after a brutal crash.
The four-minute advertisement was put on YouTube, where it had more than eight million hits.
Hodgson said the graphic nature of the ads was to capture people's attention to the danger of speeding.
He'd like to see a social shift in the way people perceive speeding, similar to changes over the last 25 years in perceptions of drunk driving.
"We want to change culture so that people understand they're having an impact on people when they're speeding, even slightly over the speed limit," he said.
The Just Slow Down campaign has been allotted $1 million from fine revenues the city collects from photo radar. It's projected to continue for five years, after kicking off last year. These commercials will run during the spring, summer and fall. Hodgson said speed has a "devastating" impact on crashes, like other risk-taking behaviour such as drinking and running red lights.
By the end of 2010, the campaign is projected to have cost about $400,000 for its first two phases.
The city hired Picante Advertising to help execute the campaign, and the ad firm receives "less than 10 per cent" of the budgeted amount to make the edgy ads.
"There's a lot of really disturbing public service announcements out there in other jurisdictions.
So even though we think we're pushing the envelope a little bit here locally, we know we're not sort of in that league," said Laura Hawkins, Picante's president.
Jan Frizzley, the mother of a 26-year-old Dr. Hook tow truck driver killed in a 2007 crash, said she wants to see stiffer sentences for speeders.
Last year, 22-year-old Steve Watkins was sentenced to 30 months for impaired driving causing death.
He ended up serving 12 months at Stony Mountain Penitentiary, said Frizzley. His SUV was speeding the wrong way down a one-way street. Frizzley supports the police videos, even though she said they're difficult to watch.
She said speeders make a choice to put others at risk, causing "horrendous" loss.
The commercials and a longer two-minute version can be viewed online (justslowdown.ca).
gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca
A world of hurt
Some graphic ads focused on stopping speeding:
THE AD: There are two about to be launched in Winnipeg: a group of youths end up battered around in a crashed car, and a man hurrying home from work ends up choking on his own blood.
THE LENGTH: 30 seconds for the television spot.
THE GORE: Minimal, relatively.
They're not pretty to look at, but the ads are tamer compared with the Australian and Welsh ones.
THE AD: Cow, a budget film from South Wales that cost $15,000 to make and stars unpaid student actors
THE LENGTH: Four-plus minutes
THE GORE: Extreme. Girls are shown covered in blood, lying prone in a smashed-up vehicle.
THE AD: A montage of ads the Transport Accident Commission of the state of Victoria in Australia made during the last 20 years.
THE LENGTH: 5 minutes.
THE GORE: Middling. There are some shocking shots - like vehicles blowing up and flipping over, but it's the artistry in some of shots -- a woman glancing sideways to see a man knocked straight in the air, or a dog sniffing a face-down body -- that will haunt you.
City intersections with the highest collision rates:
Moray Street and Portage Avenue
Kenaston Street and Grant Avenue
Sterling Lyon Parkway and Kenaston Boulevard
Kenaston Boulevard and McGillivray Boulevard
Bishop Grandin Boulevard and Waverley Street
Pembina Highway and Bison Drive
River Road and Bishop Grandin Boulevard
St. Mary's Road and Bishop Grandin Boulevard
Bishop Grandin Boulevard and Dakota Street
Fermor Avenue and Lagimodiere Boulevard
Stafford Street and Academy Road
Confusion Corner
Archibald Street and Marion Street
Dugald Overpass and Lagimodiere Boulevard
Lagimodiere Boulevard and Regent Avenue
Notre Dame Avenue and McPhillips Street
Main Street and Redwood Avenue
Lagimodiere Boulevard and Springfield Road
Inkster Boulevard and McPhillips Street
Leila Avenue and McPhillips Street
-- Source: justslowdown.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 2, 2010 A6
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11 Comments
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Posted by:
March 2, 2010 at 3:51 PM
Jay for Mayor, Premier and Minister of Highways. :)
Posted by: Jay
March 2, 2010 at 1:26 PM
What we need is not to stop people from speeding but to look at our roads here in Winnipeg and see what can be done to make them safer. There are way too many mistimed stop lights, actually too many lights in general. There are many streets where the speed limit is too low and should be raised. There are also many streets that the limit should be lowered because the road surface is in such poor condition. We need proper merge lanes and many more overpasses.
Now this is Winnipeg so I expect all that will happen is millions will be wasted on advertising no one will pay any attention to and life will go on as it did before, with extra speed cameras would be my guess.
Posted by: Jenny
March 2, 2010 at 10:28 AM
... and people will pay attention to this ad because....?
Posted by: jaydee
March 2, 2010 at 10:20 AM
The guy was drunk and driving the wrong way down the street (both of which are illegal) yet speeding was the issue? Come on.
The campaign makes no sense. For example, if one is going 60 in a 50 and hits another vehicle they will say that speed was the cause, yet if that same stretch of road is made a 60 zone then there's no speeding, but the result would have been exactly the same! Likewise, if one were to take the anti-speed arguments to their conclusion one would realize that the only safe speed is 0! Shall we all sit still?
What we're really talking about is NOT speeding, but imprudent driving, dangerous driving, drunk driving, etc. all of which are already illegal. They just trot out these horrific situations and blame them on speeding to try to shock people so they can justify boosting the bottom line by writing more tickets for going 55 in a 50.
Posted by: L
March 2, 2010 at 10:16 AM
Sorry for getting off topic, but what is Law & Order: Cold Case? Is this a new series in the franchise, or did they mix up the titles?
Posted by: DJ
March 2, 2010 at 9:11 AM
Yes yes yes.. air it every chance you get. Air them at drivers ed schools too.
Posted by: null
March 2, 2010 at 8:58 AM
Sorry, but blah blah, wah wah.
Basically a waste of time, money and effort. The only thing that slows someone down is the willingness to be frank and honest with one's self, to use some discipline, something we are ALL loathe to do.
Either that or a nice accident. I personally am so desensitized by years and years of plain ol' violent tv and movies that this campaign will slide right on by without notice. It took me about twenty years of driving and paying and close calls to finally submit to the realization that it's not worth it. And even then, some days....
So judge like you will. The only changes come willingly, from within, and no manner of or multiple tv commercials, or b.s. viral videos, will do that.
The end.
Posted by: Brian_wpg
March 2, 2010 at 8:37 AM
These videos do nothing at all, if you want to stop speeding in Winnipeg then issue more tickets. Winnipeg people only change their habits when it affects their money.
Posted by: saywhat
March 2, 2010 at 8:02 AM
It would be nice to see this ads on tv shows that are more popular like Survivor, Lost and Desperate Housewives.
Posted by: HeK
March 2, 2010 at 7:58 AM
While I have nothing against the campaign or the graphic advertisements, at least show a situation where traveling over safe speeds directly lead to collisions.
In the ad shown here, the fault falls 100% on the father in the silver car. Speeding or not, his over-reacting and failure to control his motor vehicle is the cause. The Manitoba drivers program does not include training for emergency situations such as safely avoiding instant obstacles at speed.
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