Last year in Belgium, “only” 640 people lost their lives in road accidents. It’s decrease of 13% compared to 2016.
But it’s still way too many, especially in a country with a population as small as Belgium’s (approximately 11.5 million). Even more so if your child was one of the 640.
To illustrate this fact, FCB alliance agency, Happiness, has created an arresting campaign for Parents of Road Victims, that makes the number of fatalities more tangible and human, rather than just a statistic.
It’s the year-long radio campaign you’d rather not hear. Because every time it airs, somebody just died in a road accident – in real-time. The dynamic radio campaign, called Behind the Numbers, is directly connected to national police data. Every time somebody gets killed in traffic, a pre-recorded radio spot with an updated number of victims airs instantly across five different radio channels simultaneously. Each unique spot was recorded by real parents of road victims.
By creating one unique radio spot for every life lost, every victim in the statistics becomes more tangible. This emphasises the scale of the problem to everybody listening to the radio, including drivers. And by doing so, each life lost becomes a reason to drive more carefully.
Geoffrey Hantson, chief creative officer of Happiness, commented, “Just yesterday, the copywriter of this campaign lost a friend in a road accident. It was only afterwards that he realised that when he heard the radio ad announcing victim number 121 the previous afternoon, it was actually announcing that his friend passed away. It’s an extremely sad example of what the campaign does – making everybody understand that behind the numbers and the statistics, it’s real people dying.”
Credits:
Agency: Happiness Brussels
Chief Creative Officer: Geoffrey Hantson
Creatives: Roxane Schneider & Pieter Claeys
Chief Executive Officer & Strategic Director: Karen Corrigan
Group Account Director: Hans Smets
Account Manager: Tine Van Hasselt
Junior Account Executive: Gaelle Maes
Radio Production: Raygun
Radio Director: Peter Baert
Producers: Jérôme Gijsen, Toon Jansegers & Liesbeth Demolder
Camera team: Lisa Gadeyne & Sumi Arcos Mina
Motion: Remke Faber & Karlien Huygels
Client: OVK (Ouders van Verongelukte Kinderen)
Contacts: Koen van Wonterghem, Ellen Ruys