Tuesday
Sep082009
When a £10K Public Service Announcement becomes a meme
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 11:51PM
When I was a child public service announcements were short and badly made, typically a single aired just before BBC or ITV went offline at around midnight. They extolled the dangers of flying a kite near power lines or trespassing on British Rail (as it was back then) tracks. You felt disconnected and often amused by the appalling production quality.
Fast forward to 2009, with 24-hour, multi-channel television and Internet content. Here a short 4 minute video about the dangers of texting while driving, which was made for several thousand pounds, has become a hit on the Internet and has sparked debates internationally about road safety.
The video has been covered by mainstream media outlets such as the Washington Post, CNN and Time magazine. Even advertising supremo Donny Deutsch thinks that the advert is one of the most impactful public service announcements ever made, check out his interview and NBC coverage below:
Gwent police commissioned the video from local film maker Peter Watkins-Hughes, who borrowed props from local residents and used unknown actors and actresses.
This is the power of media that connects with the viewer, one survey in the US has found that 80% of people who had seen the film were less likely to text while driving than before.
Fast forward to 2009, with 24-hour, multi-channel television and Internet content. Here a short 4 minute video about the dangers of texting while driving, which was made for several thousand pounds, has become a hit on the Internet and has sparked debates internationally about road safety.
The video has been covered by mainstream media outlets such as the Washington Post, CNN and Time magazine. Even advertising supremo Donny Deutsch thinks that the advert is one of the most impactful public service announcements ever made, check out his interview and NBC coverage below:
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Gwent police commissioned the video from local film maker Peter Watkins-Hughes, who borrowed props from local residents and used unknown actors and actresses.
This is the power of media that connects with the viewer, one survey in the US has found that 80% of people who had seen the film were less likely to text while driving than before.
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