‘World-first’ neuroscience ad urges motorists to slow down this Easter
An ad encouraging people to “drive smarter, not faster” by leveraging neuroscience and data has been launched by the Queensland government ahead of the Easter long weekend.
The ad, produced in collaboration with creative agency Publicis Worldwide, targets the 94% of drivers who are ‘low-level’ speeders, driving up to 10 kilometres over the limit.
A still from the ad
“In our research, we discovered most drivers don’t deliberately speed, however their busy lives mean they have reduced concentration while driving as they are thinking about everything else but driving, while also multi-tasking in the car,” said Simone Waugh, managing director of Publicis Worldwide in Queensland.
“This is not a campaign but a behaviour change program that’s brought together neuroscience with data science and creativity to design and give people real-time actions to help them be present while driving to alter their behaviour.”
Queensland transport and main roads minister Mark Bailey explained that the ad captures Queensland drivers on dashcam before they take the experiment, then analyses their behaviour during the experiment.
“This is the first road safety campaign in the world to tap into neuroscience as a way of changing driving behaviour,” Bailey said.
“With the help of a behavioural neuroscientist [Dr Lucia Kelleher], we devised eight simple exercises to help Queenslanders stop speeding, stop being distracted and focus on driving. The campaign shows drivers in real situations. The dashcam footage doesn’t hold back and shows the reality of speeding and distractions. It encourages Queenslanders to look at the simple techniques they can use to drive smarter, not faster.”
Minister Bailey said research had shown that speeding saved drivers just 77 seconds on an average urban commute.
“Yet more than one million speeding infringements were issued in Queensland last year. It’s time for this to change,” he said.
“Speeding continues to be a killer on Queensland roads, with almost 60 people killed each year because of speed. The Easter holiday period is just a few days away, and we ask all road users to heed the message of the campaign – driver smarter, not faster. Is gaining 77 seconds through speeding worth the risk to you or your loved ones?”
Credits:
Client: Transport and Main Roads
Director (Community Road Safety): Kerrie Tregenza
Principal Advisor: Michelle Wells, Natalie Doyle
Agency: Publicis Worldwide
Executive Creative Director: Ryan Petie
Creative Director: Lee Griffin
Creatives: Lee Griffin (CD), David Schaak (Art), Kirsten Twigg (Copy)
Head of Broadcast & Content: Vicki Lee
Strategy Director: Susan Lyons
Group Account Director: Vanessa West
Account Director: Laura Bradshaw
Technical Director: Fredy Leivano
Mercer Bell: David Schneider, Sophia Zhou, Alistair McCall
Neuroscientist: Dr Lucia Kelleher
Production House: Taxi Films
Directors: Mike Mier & Lav Bodnaruk
Executive Producer: Andrew Wareham
DOP: Lav Bodnaruk
Post Production: The Chop Shop
Editors: Grant Sundin, Jordyn Haney, Steve Thomas, Lav Bodnaruk
Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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topics
Easter
Mark Bailey
Minister Mark Bailey
neuroscience
Publicis Worldwide
Queensland government
Simone Waugh
speeding
Doesn’t take a neuroscientist to realise an ad like this can have really harmful effects. Where you are actually socially morning bad behaviour to happen even more.
Really irresponsible advertising. Should be pulled immidiately.
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It’s also definitely not the first neuroscience road safety campaign.
JWT Sydney and Perth’s Attention Powered Car was way ahead of this.
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The word “neuroscience” appears 5 times, “data” 2 times but at no point actually explains how the work actually draws on insight from either.
Also, “first neuroscience road safety campaign” is hilarious and incorrect for the reasons identified by Rob.
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The article (aka media release) bangs on about ‘neuroscience’ but it’s just an ad. And maybe they show the dashcam footage to the talent in the ad and will show us their reactions, but that’s not neuroscience.
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system.
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More like pseudo-science.
So a dashcam is now neuroscience. And that makes me Einstein.
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