J. Walter Thompson is to receive a Royal award for anti-road rage ads
the Government refused to back.
The agency will be presented with the Prince Michael Road Safety Award
at a Motor Show lunch on Thursday for the work which tells drivers:
‘Don’t drive like a dipstick.’
Roy Ward, the chairman of the charity’s awards council, is expected to
use the event to urge a Government rethink. John Bowis, the Minister for
Local Transport and Road Safety, is due to attend.
The ads were the brainchild of Trevor de Silva, a JWT copywriter, who
suggested the independent campaign after he became a road rage victim.
JWT has produced five humorous commercials featuring pedestrians
mimicking bad driving behaviour.
One film shows two fathers pushing baby buggies and racing each other.
The picture freezes as a young mum comes into view and faces a head-on
collision.
A second spot spoofs two road racers revving up at a start-line but then
reveals that the men are at a pedestrian crossing. Both ads carry the
endline: ‘Stupid isn’t it? So why do it in your car?’
The ads are currently being tested in Hertfordshire cinemas using space
donated by the local council. They were directed by Martin Jones at TTO
Films, with funds from several local authorities, including
Hertfordshire, Essex, Hereford and Worcester and Warwickshire.
Posters supporting the campaign are due to run at the Motor Show and at
London’s Euston Station.
The campaign was written by de Silva and Jonathan Johns with art
direction by Nick Wootton and Paul White.
