Just read this interesting article today from Newsweek- instead of guilt campaigns or shock tactics, road authorities in Australia are challenging a guy's masculinity. The PSA show young male drivers, who "are mocked by unimpressed women who wave their little fingers at the drivers in a parody of their manhood."
According to research done before launching the campaign, young drivers have become used to seeing gruesome car accident footage or other fear tactics. According to the article, "the campaign was produced by the Road Transport Authority (RTA) of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, where death and injury rates from speeding are highest among young men. 'More and more young people are not responding to the shock-horror kind of advertising,' said RTA Director John Whelan. "We are doing something different to get the message through. What we are saying with these ads is that speeding doesn’t impress anybody."
Do real men need to speed? I don't think so, and hopefully this clever ad campaign will help save lives and teach responsibility. Clearly, you're compensating for something-- if not a small dick, maybe a small brain?
Here's a direct link to the video too.
3 comments:
It seems like the RTA (road department in Australia) has forgotten about the fact that young women speed as well. Does that mean they speed to compensate for their small chest?
The roads in Sydney have ridiculously low speed limit, people 'speed' because they are simply going at a speed which is acceptable for the current road condition. You should come to Sydney and drive on the roads here and see for yourself.
If road accidents are being caused disproportionately by young men (which the article leads you to believe), having an ad campaign targeting that group makes sense. Women do speed, sure, but not like young guys tend to. Besides, if a woman speeds, is it to impress her friends the same way guys practice machismo acts? Look at the cause of the behavior.
Ridiculously low speed limits or not, if deadly accidents are occurring, obviously someone's driving too fast.
It is the easiest to blame the drivers for car accidents. The government and the road department has everyone fooled by blaming speeding as the only factor in road accidents. It is also the cheapest way to "improve road safety" for them.
Poorly designed roads, inadquate and confusing road signs and marking on the road often contribute to accidents.
The current driver education and trainning system in Australia is an absolute joke. People can get their licence way too easily without going through all the preperations and practice to make them a safe driver on the road. For example, a lot of people do not know how to control a car when it starts to slide, or how to maximise the use of ABS braking system.
To redesign all the roads and signs in Sydney, as well as launching new driver education programs will cost too much, much more than making an ad, that is why the government and the road department is sticking to "speed kills" intead of targetting the complete problem.
As a young male driver i am sick of being constantly targeted by the government and the road department.
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