NRMA Insurance implores homeowners to do their bit to prevent bushfires in new brand platform
Starting Saturday 5 September, one year after last summer’s bushfire crisis began, NRMA Insurance is asking Australians to take the first Saturday of every month to do one task that will make their homes safer from bushfires and support first responders.
Ant White, chief creative officer of CHE Proximity, the agency behind the campaign, told Mumbrella that the idea came from a “comment from an exhausted fire chief at a low ebb during the last year’s catastrophe about whether it was right to send firefighters into danger trying to save homes if the owners hadn’t done their part to make it safer.”
First Saturday, the insurer’s new brand platform, is backed by the rise in DIY projects undertaken by Australians in lockdown, and NRMA Insurance’s COVID-19 Brand Navigator Report, which found Australians value their safety above everything else. The campaign positions tasks such as clearing gutters and garden debris, trimming branches and acquiring safety equipment, as household tasks that make a meaningful difference to first responders.
I have a mixed reaction and opinion on this one.
First, I agree with what the exhausted fire chief said – is it right to send firefighters into danger trying to save homes if the owners hadn’t done their part to make it safer?
I don’t really know. But I totally understand the fire chief’s POV.
But I was somewhat surprised with the NRMA interpreting that as “asking Australians to take the first Saturday of every month to do one task that will make their homes safer from bushfires and support first responders.”
Personally, we did our last burn-off for 2019 on the last day of August when the RFS (correctly) moved the fire ban season forward a month to start on September 1.
The RFS kept us informed as to the fire danger for the upcoming season given the lack of moisture in forest floor in the National Park.
Hardly a day went by that we weren’t removing fallen branches and limbs, leaf litter, pruning, clipping etc. Anything flammable that wasn’t needed went onto the new burn pile down in the paddock some 100m from the house.
Prior to Christmas we started moving anything flammable away from the house into the sheds – better to lose them than the house.
On the day, we had the roof sprinklers on and the garden irrigation spraying the house for six hours.
When the ember attack struck from out of the night sky we had three minutes to get out and not enough time to turn the roof sprinklers and garden irrigation back on as the flames were about 40m away and running fast on a front that was around 400m long.
So, while I understand the sentiment and the advice of the ad, could it be that doing one task on the first day of each month may convey a false sense of security?