NSW road safety song says ‘get your hands off it’
The New South Wales Government has used a humorous three-minute song as part of its new road safety campaign.
Titled “Get Your Hands Off It,’ the song was created by the New South Wales Government, Ogilvy, MediaCom and Infinity, and sung by self-described “bearded manchild” Derek Anderson.
Anderson sings as a person who texts constantly, saying “Maybe you can’t text and drive, but I sure as hell can and I’m still alive. I’m on a 12-hour shift, I’ve got to stay alert, A cheeky little text, well it never hurt. A brother gotta get from A to B, and I keep it out of sight so the cops can’t see.”
Anderson – who appears to be the same Derek Anderson who formerly worked as an art director at Blue Marlin,Leo Burnett and Whybin\TBWA and is now based at Taxi in Canada – performs the song on a pantomime-like set, complete with crew in morph suits moving set pieces around.
The ‘Get Your Hands Off It’ campaign will be rolled out with outdoor, TV, online and social media.
Telstra, Optus, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone have all thrown their support behind the campaign.
It’s not the first time a comic approach has been used to promote road safety. In Victoria, young drivers were targeted with a “Don’t Be A Dickhead” message. And Metro Trains was behind the award winning Dumb Ways To Die.
This…..is…… AMAZEBALLZ!
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This is great. Hopefully the do gooders who this isn’t targeted at don’t complain and get this pulled off.
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MR – could you re-phrase that?
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Looks like they have tried to replicate Dumb Ways to Die.
Fail…
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fantastic. well done all.
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Nice PJ’s!
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Sure, they’ve taking the same approach as Dumb Ways To Die. But that’s fine.
What’s important is they come up with something that sticks and makes people think again. And I think they’ve done it, well almost. I’m humming the melody but don’t remember the words.
Great stuff.
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Can anyone else understand what he’s saying?
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Agent 86 – so any branded music video on YouTube from now on is a rip off of dumb ways die? Good adlogic
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Derek’s quite the character! Check out his #junkfoodsweater escapades!
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Derek is truly a weblebrity
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Adlogic – really? Lets look at the situation, dumb ways to die, “relatively” unique concept to get across a public service announcement around trains in Melbourne, funded by State Government. Now the RTA wants to push out a similar message around car safety. It would have been nice to think the creative agency could answer the brief in a more original way. I guess the true measure of success will be if it reaches similar hits on YouTube, or picks up as many awards, given that it is unlikely to be supported with paid media in its 3 minute form.
Maybe you will be right, only time will tell I guess.
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Agent 86 No need to get defensive. I’m not arguing the quality of the work. But just because it is a campaign about safety of sorts, funded by a government and is in the form of a music video doesn’t mean it’s replicating. If that’s true then any supermarket jingle tvc is a replica or any condiment print ad with no copy is a replica.
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