The THINK! team has refreshed five of the campaign’s posters which address key road safety issues – driver tiredness, motorcyclists, mobile phones, urban speed and seatbelts.
Road safety teams can order the A4 and A3 printed posters free of charge from the road safety professional’s section on the THINK! website.
Juliet Owen from the THINK! team said: “Each poster features an arresting image that challenges the viewer and is designed to draw them in. The ‘call to action’ then follows on from the viewer’s comprehension of the image.
“By presenting familiar road safety advice such as ‘Watch your speed’ and ‘Always wear a seatbelt’ in these new ways, we aim to make the message stand out to the audience.
“The creative ideas have been tested with the target audience throughout the development to ensure an appropriate balance between intrigue and comprehension.”
The posters, which can be customised by adding an authority or organisation’s logo alongside the THINK! logo, have been made available in time for UK Road Safety Week (9-15 June) which is being co-ordinated by the Chief Fire Officer Association’s (CFOA).
Duncan I did reply to your statement but it appears to have gotten lost. I did not see the motorcycle as I didn t have my reading glasses on. Had I had them on I am sure I would have seen it.
I don’t need glasses for any other eye defect so I presume on a real road I would have spotted him a mile off though he would have been well out of sight over the hill. I would have heard him……
The SLOW sign seems to me to be incidental or possibly a point to all road users. It seems to be too close to the junction being approached by the motorcyclists and may in fact relate to some other danger further down the road.
bob craven Lancs
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Thanks for your comments on the posters. The new Biker poster has prompted debate here and also on http://www.facebook.com/THINKBIKER – a whopping 478 comments so far!
We’ve been asked for some background on how the posters have been developed and tested. The process for all THINK! campaigns is similar: we work with specialist agencies to produce materials, in this case a creative agency. The agency responds to our brief with a series of ideas and we evaluate these against the brief and select those that work best to develop further. We then test the ideas with the target audience. Depending on budget, this might be done in focus groups and/or through a structured survey or, as for these posters, informal discussions. As these posters aim to make the viewer look twice testing was needed throughout the development to ensure the balance between intrigue and comprehension of the message.
Juliet, THINK! Campaign Team, DfT
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If the poster comes across as a bit of a mixed message with some of the ownership of the problem being transferred to motorcyclists, surely that is a very good idea indeed. The sooner we can get motorcyclists to stop blaming the ‘cagers’ for all that befalls them the better things will be. As far as I can see the ambiguity of the poster is its strength.
David, Suffolk
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Custom of individual posters is a real step forwards for all road safety practioners to share, well done.
Martin Dowle: Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service
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Duncan is correct their is a motorbike with his headlight on approaching the junction and the word SLOW. However the poster for me has a mixed message as it feels the desired action has more ownership with the motorcyclist than the other road user. I was always taught when seeing the word “SLOW”, speed low observed warning.
Gareth, Surrey
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Sorry Bob, but there IS a motorbike in the picture!! Study it very closely and you will see that mixed in with the tree branches is a perfectly camouflaged motorbike. It took me ten minutes before I finally spotted it!
If a professional can’t spot the bike in the relaxed safety of their desk, then what hope has the average driver got of spotting the bike in the real world?
This poster shows the problem very well, but in doing so it also reveals the enormity of the perception problem. -NVT-
Duncan MacKillop, Stratford on Avon
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I agree Gareth, it’s not a good poster for what it wants to portray. Its ambiguous.
It is, I presume, portraying visibility at a junction and to the right is a brow of a hill or rise and perhaps a slight bend. Anyone in their right mind would keep good observation if pulling out on that junction. No motorcycle yet but there could be one approaching over the crest.
I also think that the words printed are to small, lost, and therefore insignificant or could be considered insignificant by some. It certainly doesn’t catch the eye at all. The word SLOW directs all approaching traffic to slow not just twv.s That’s only my opinion.
bob craven Lancs
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Sorry to be a pedantic bore on this one but! The motorcycle poster aimed at other road users to watch out for motorcyclists clearly depicts the word SLOW – an action not for the car driver but motorcyclist! Speed Low Observed Warning.
Gareth, Surrey
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The teen ped one is really clever.
Peter London
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The option of customising with our own logo is an excellent step forward.
Iain Temperton
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