Graphic television ads to target city speeders

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