Using children's drawings to combat highway speeders
For the new billboard campaign on German motorways, children's drawings have prevailed over body bags and illustrations of death. They are appealing – but are the images not targeting the wrong people?
So, children's drawings it is. The people have spoken. In an online vote by the German Road Safety Council, the colorful motifs left no chance for the morbid themes. They were "clearly ahead" of illustrations of deaths and body bags. As a result, seven drawings will soon be appealing to the reason of passing drivers on around 700 billboards along German motorways.
Source: © Runter vom Gas
"Speeding is stupid!" – "Keep your distance!" – "Don't drink!" – these are all messages that also regularly line the motorways in Switzerland and in Austria. Because it is necessary to address the most common causes of accidents.
Sometimes such campaigns use shock motifs. They deal with the consequences of accidents – death, grief, and loss of control. Or they remain deliberately striking: an isolated image of a beer or a shattered smartphone, a short sentence, easy to grasp in seconds.
The children's drawings, on the other hand, are colorful, almost cheerful in their coloring – even though the topic is serious. Had I been faced with the choice, I would have chosen them too. At the same time, I wonder if they can reach the right people.
A different way of addressing the issue
When the poster doesn't stand by the road like a wagging finger, but instead conveys a childlike request, it pushes different buttons in the viewer. If the image is recognized as a child's drawing, the focus is initially less on the message and more on the creator: Here, it's not a commissioned advertising agency shoving a slogan in my face; here, an eleven-year-old is bothered by bad behavior in road traffic.
Source: © Runter vom Gas
Such images are well-suited for conveying emotions. "We can hardly appeal to the responsibility of each individual more poignantly than through the eyes of the youngest in our society," is how German Federal Minister of Transport Steffen Bilger is quoted. I can relate to that – and yet, in the next moment, I think that the message is addressed to a small target group.
"Dear Mom, hands off the phone!" or "Dear Dad, speeding is stupid!" is aimed at people who have hopefully already thoroughly questioned their driving behavior: According to a study, the fear of traffic accidents grows with the birth of the first child, and the sense of responsibility becomes stronger. Nevertheless, only a portion of parents adjust their driving style. Those who miss this opportunity will unfortunately likely stick to their bad habits in the long run, despite all the posters – and often pass them on.
Like parents, like children
The parents' heavy foot influences how their children begin their careers behind the wheel years later. This is the conclusion of a 2010 study in which 130 novice drivers and their parents were surveyed about their personal driving style.
Four years later, a study followed for which practical driving data on the road was determined. It showed: The riskier the parents drove, the more risk-taking their sons were (daughters were left out here for good reasons). This will partly be due to inherited personality traits.
Source: © Runter vom Gas
What parents pass on and practically demonstrate in road traffic has a stronger effect than any good advice. Or a poster. If it is too late for the fathers, it will be even less able to convert their children. Yet, the statistically most conspicuous group in serious car accidents is not the parent generation.
According to the BFU, young adults between 18 and 24 have an almost three times higher kilometer-related risk of being seriously injured in a car accident than 25- to 64-year-olds. Over 80 percent of these accidents are self-inflicted; two-thirds of the seriously injured or killed young adults are men. A similar picture emerges in Germany.
The true goal is more subtle
It would be nice if children's drawings could change something about that. Presumably, they are easier for twenty-year-olds to ignore than any shock image. Wouldn't the harsh motifs be significantly more effective?
When Dad is supposed to take his foot off the gas or Mom is supposed to put the phone away, the creators of such campaigns probably don't even assume they will convert the incorrigible with new posters. That wouldn't work with a picture of a body bag either.
Most of the population is familiar with such campaigns – and the measurable effect in terms of behavioral change remains small. Their true power lies in public perception, which in turn influences the social climate. They show what is important to a broad majority.
Children instead of AI
What works very well is what is quickly remembered – and that's where the children's drawings could score. Those who see them might not remember specific motifs, but they will reliably store the campaign and its goal. They stand out from the usual poster series. What is needed is what feels real.
Source: © Runter vom Gas
Speaking of feeling real: The children's drawings that the survey participants used to decide on the campaign were created by artificial intelligence. Exemplary drafts were generated for the public vote in this way. Only afterwards did numerous children pick up their pens as part of a competition.
The selected motifs all come from girls: The pictures by Ella, Lotta, Maria, Talia, Martha, Sara, and Zoe will hang on the motorways in the future – and hopefully make one or two people think.
Simple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.
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