2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

UAE residents are 7 times more likely to die in car accidents, compared to the UK. One of the leading causes is texting and driving. Even after losing a national football star and renewed police enforcement, the number of accidents continued to rise. Nissan’s innovations are designed to keep drivers safe. But even the most advance technology is powerless when drivers are distracted. We decided to raise awareness among the highest-risk segment—college students. We needed to prove to young drivers that texting and driving are a deadly mix, and shake them out of their apathy.

Creative Execution

The medium became the message. Making the 1.8m tall sculpture purely from smashed car parts had stopping power as well as relevance to the message. A smashed window, a bent wheel, a ruptured car door, a burnt seat, a ripped teddy bear—each conjured up an eerie vision of its path to the junkyard. By placing it in campuses, we reached our target audience directly and provoked them to interact with the message. And when they scanned the QR code, they received the complete message, which they could then share instantly to their social network, reaching more of their peers.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We combined the language of texting with the consequences of texting. We created a Crash Text Dummy, a towering sculpture of the text shortcut “FYI”, created from smashed car parts. No message around it, simply a QR code. When curious students scan the code, they are automatically prompted to post a safety message on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. This message includes a Don’t Text & Drive appeal, an image of the sculpture and a link to the Nissan Safety page. This helped us spread the message beyond the campus, to a larger but relevant audience.

Results

The sculpture made its way around Dubai campuses. In just 7 days, thousands got the message. The press covered it, as well as TV and radio stations. Over 500 people forwarded it to their friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest via the QR code, reaching exponentially more people across their social media networks.