For everyone who has ever been frustrated by anything, this experiential campaign by FCB Interface will make you smile. For everyone who fancies themself as a creative problem solver, this experiential campaign by FCB Interface will inspire you – or at least ignite your competitive spirit. Simple, immediate and effective – this idea really IS that good.
Here is its story.
Mumbai is one of the noisiest cities in the world. A lot of this noise is due to the cacophony at traffic signals. Mumbaikars (the locals in Mumbai) honk even when the signal is red. Needless to say, this noise pollution is making the city alarmingly unhealthy to live in. To tackle this honking menace, the Mumbai Traffic Police and FCB Interface came up with an innovative solution called The Punishing Signal.
When people’s honking takes the ambient sound level above 85 decibels (which is considered dangerous), special decibel meters connected to the traffic signals reset the red signal. People are forced to wait even longer for the green light.
“Honking is a bad habit and an act of traffic indiscipline. Unfortunately, many Mumbaikars indulge in reckless honking. Honking causes noise pollution, hurts the eardrums, increases heart rate, creates traffic confusion and causes stress. Unnecessary honking is a menace which everyone recognizes but does little to curb. This small experiment is one of many attempts by Mumbai Police to create better road discipline in Mumbai. Hopefully, it will encourage Mumbaikars to honk less, and create a noise-free and stress-free commute,” stated Madhukar Pandey, joint commissioner of police (traffic), Mumbai Police.
The first leg of activation was tested in Mumbai at important junctions that are most prone to heavy traffic such as CSMT, Marine Drive, Peddar Road, Hindmata and Bandra. The campaign film shows the confusion of Mumbaikars who honked, waited, honked and learned the hard way, that honking is not the way out.
Robby Mathew, chief creative officer, FCB Interface, said, “Sometimes, the stick works better than the carrot. And a signal that gave us a gentle rap on the knuckles for honking unnecessarily, seemed like a good idea to me.”
Adding, Rohit Ohri, Group Chairman and CEO FCB Group, stated, “We have been partnering Mumbai Police for many years now. Noise pollution is a big problem in our cities. This new initiative is a fantastic creative solution for bringing about awareness and a behaviour change amongst the drivers in Mumbai.”
The campaign is being promoted on TV, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
Credits:
Client: Mumbai Police
Creative Agency: FCB Interface
Creative Team: Fred Levron, Robby Mathew, Mukesh Jadhav, Rakesh Menon, Ravi Ananthan, Mayuresh Vengurlekar & Siddharth Kutty
Media Team: Dhruv Jha, Amit Raina
Account Management: Shailesh Gupte
Social Media : Rahul Shenoy & Shreyas Deshmukh
Film Team: Alpa Jobalia & Mazhar Khan
Director of TVC: Akshay Nair
DOP: Sujay Pawar
Producers: Sukirth Rao, Archana Sarkar & Shwetabh Mishra
Production Company: 30ML Ideas Production
Music Partner: Saregama
