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TAC and Melbourne International Comedy Festival launch pedestrian safety campaign with walking comedy show

The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) has partnered with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival to launch a campaign reminding pedestrians to ditch their distractions.

The campaign centres around a walking comedy show from Sam Simmons, highlighting the perils of being a pedestrian on Melbourne roads.

A live comedy show from Sam Simmons is the centrepiece of the campaign

Out-of-home and social content features prominent comedians performing at the festival, including Lawrence Leung and drag queen ‘Karen from Finance’.

The campaign is part of TAC’s Towards Zero strategy, aiming for zero pedestrian deaths or serious injuries. In 2018 there were 38 pedestrian deaths, with 32 occurring in metropolitan Melbourne.

Meg Jacobs, senior manager of engagement at TAC, said: “It doesn’t matter whether we’re driving a car, riding a bike or walking, if every road user is entirely focussed on what is happening around them, we would see an immediate reduction in deaths and injuries on our roads.

“You see it far too often – people looking down at their phones or using headphones, oblivious to their surroundings. Pedestrians are vulnerable and have no protection in the event of an incident in traffic, so it is also critical that motorists are just as vigilant and keep their speeds low.”

The campaign also features comedian Lawrence Leung

Damien Hodgkinson, executive director of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, was delighted to work with TAC and WPP’s Graffiti Experiential for a third year.

“With hundreds of thousands of comedy lovers packing into our busy city, and moving from venues to restaurants, and back to venues every night across the 26 day Festival, we want to make sure they are doing so safely,” said Hodgkinson.

“Working with Graffiti and TAC to bring this to life has been a true partnership, and we were so fortunate to work with Sam Simmons to bring humour and comedian collaboration to our activation.”

Drag queen Karen from Finance also features in the campaign

Kerrie Spaargaren, managing director, Graffiti Experiential stated: “We aimed to create the ultimate in branded content with Sam Simmons, and only he could deliver lessons of pedestrian safety in such a hilarious, unique way.

“We worked with the talented Melbourne Comedy Festival team to make sure the show was produced like any other Festival show, which meant it was quirky, authentic and a created natural platform to deliver an important message and leverage the partnership.”

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival runs until the 21st of April.

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