Mayo Co. Council tricks thousands to listen to road safety warning

Tokyo

The latest "initiative" by Mayo Co. Council...

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/boyracer-car-advert-tricks-thousands-to-listen-to-chilling-road-safety-warning-30316485.html

An advertisement for a 2003 Subaru WRX Impreza on the ‘buy and sell’ website DoneDeal tricked potential buyers to call a phone number for more information, only to be forced instead to listen to a road safety announcement.

The 'boy-racer' car was advertised online for the bargain price of €3,000 and over 5,000 motorists rang the phone number to speak to a seller called John Murphy.

However, when they rang the number they heard a message from a boy-racer driver who had killed a six-year-old girl as a result of his reckless driving.

While I think that encouraging road safety and preventing potential deaths is applaudable, something like this goes a bit too far in my opinion. It's one thing putting an ad out there where people can choose to listen to it or not, but quite another to disguise it in such a way that people listen to it against their will, and have to pay for the privilege to do so by means of a phone charge. In that respect it's no different to spam links or similar, and if I were to do the same to fulfil my own agenda, I'd get roasted for it.

So what do the people of AH think? Praiseworthy initiative from the council, or an unjustifiable trick to force people to listen?

kneemos

Surprisingly imaginative.

Donkey Oaty

Nice to see local government using a bit of creativity. Well done to them.

Donkey Oaty

This is the really alarming bit:

Despite the obvious hoax, a total of 167 callers still left their contact details on the voicemail.

kneemos

Donkey Oaty wrote: »

This is the really alarming bit:

It's a Subaru for three grand!

whitewave

People seem to be immune to road safety ads, it must be hard to come up with new ideas to try force people to think about their driving, and slow down

Karl Stein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85cL1HisrNc

folan

im often tricked into listening to ads. Damn spotify

fleet_admiral

Karl Stein wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85cL1HisrNc

CAN I HAVE YE BOTH?

Barely There

Getting young people to listen to a safety homily under false pretences is hardly going to make them conducive to the message being delivered.

TwoShedsJackson

Donkey Oaty wrote: »

This is the really alarming bit:

Or maybe this bit:

One potential buyer is even heard saying; “He didn’t crash the car, he just hit a girl.”

Tombo2001

Its a brilliant idea.

If it works, then the moaning about it is just noise.

Its something I've often pondered myself. You see these nice ads on RTE, about road safety, that can be quite graphic and so on.

But the 19 year olds who come flying around the corner in boy racers arent watching these ads.

So how do you reach that audience.

Its brilliant, fair fox to them.

Tombo2001

mike_ie wrote: »

The latest "initiative" by Mayo Co. Council...

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/boyracer-car-advert-tricks-thousands-to-listen-to-chilling-road-safety-warning-30316485.html

While I think that encouraging road safety and preventing potential deaths is applaudable, something like this goes a bit too far in my opinion. It's one thing putting an ad out there where people can choose to listen to it or not, but quite another to disguise it in such a way that people listen to it against their will, and have to pay for the privilege to do so by means of a phone charge. In that respect it's no different to spam links or similar, and if I were to do the same to fulfil my own agenda, I'd get roasted for it.

So what do the people of AH think? Praiseworthy initiative from the council, or an unjustifiable trick to force people to listen?

I'd say the old United Nations Human Rights commission will have something to say about that one.....

mickydoomsux

And yet, this weekend two or three young lads will go out and wrap themselves around lampposts at 3 in the morning.

They are preaching to an audience who don't give a **** about what they are saying.

How many 18 year olds could get insured on a car like that?

Alf. A. Male

That target audience is one of the hardest to reach, I'm all for anything that gets even one of them to listen and change their minds.

gramar

mike_ie wrote: »

The latest "initiative" by Mayo Co. Council...

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/boyracer-car-advert-tricks-thousands-to-listen-to-chilling-road-safety-warning-30316485.html

While I think that encouraging road safety and preventing potential deaths is applaudable, something like this goes a bit too far in my opinion. It's one thing putting an ad out there where people can choose to listen to it or not, but quite another to disguise it in such a way that people listen to it against their will, and have to pay for the privilege to do so by means of a phone charge. In that respect it's no different to spam links or similar, and if I were to do the same to fulfil my own agenda, I'd get roasted for it.

So what do the people of AH think? Praiseworthy initiative from the council, or an unjustifiable trick to force people to listen?

That was hardly against their will. It mightn't have been their intention to listen to it but no-one jammed earphones into their ears and held them down.

Chattastrophe!

Alf. A. Male wrote: »

That target audience is one of the hardest to reach, I'm all for anything that gets even one of them to listen and change their minds.

I imagine that those sort of tactics are only going to p*ss them off.

I'd be very annoyed if I was looking for a car and responded to what I believed to be a genuine advert, only to get a preachy road safety message.

Many young people who own high-spec cars care far too much about their car to risk dangerous driving and speeding. A few idiots give the majority a bad name.

kneemos

Chattastrophe! wrote: »

I imagine that those sort of tactics are only going to p*ss them off.

I'd be very annoyed if I was looking for a car and responded to what I believed to be a genuine advert, only to get a preachy road safety message.

Many young people who own high-spec cars care far too much about their car to risk dangerous driving and speeding. A few idiots give the majority a bad name.

Yeah they'd never speed.That's why they spend a fortune to make them faster.

ryan101

mickydoomsux wrote: »

And yet, this weekend two or three young lads will go out and wrap themselves around lampposts at 3 in the morning.

And anything that can prevent just one tradegy is to be welcomed.
But this trick advert is just deceptive and dishonest to say the least.
Not a great example to be setting.
Then again what would you expect from any gombeen county council.

Dravokivich

kneemos wrote: »

Yeah they'd never speed.That's why they spend a fortune to make them faster.

Boy Racers only make a part of the problem. Pointing the issue towards them doesn't deal with accidents or fatalities on roads, what ever led up to them, or who was actually responsible. Once there's someone involved that fits an age profile the focus is always on them. A victim of an accident is involved too...

Pawwed Rig

Is this the same council that recently got the roads blessed to cut down on road deaths? Nuff said

http://www.thejournal.ie/roads-in-mayo-get-prayers-and-blessings-in-a-bid-to-reduce-road-deathsroads-in-mayo-get-prayers-and-blessings-in-a-bid-to-reduce-road-deaths-1420708-Apr2014/

ryan101

Dravokivich wrote: »

Boy Racers only make a part of the problem. Pointing the issue towards them doesn't deal with accidents or fatalities on roads, what ever led up to them, or who was actually responsible. Once there's someone involved that fits an age profile the focus is always on them. A victim of an accident is involved too...

The responses to the advert were interesting :

“John here. Sorry I can’t answer the call,” the message said.
“If you’re calling about the car, yes I still have it for sale. I have it about six months. It’s quick, so quick I didn’t even see her.
“She was only six years old for God’s sake,” it continued.
“Make me an offer and take it away. I can’t stand looking at it anymore.
“Just don’t drive like I did.”
The message concludes with; “Brought to you by Mayo County Council as part of a road safety campaign.”

Despite the obvious hoax, a total of 167 callers still left their contact details on the voicemail.

One potential buyer is even heard saying; “He didn’t crash the car, he just hit a girl.”

Caliden

Define 'boy racer'.

Is it the owner of a modified car or is it the owner of a car that's driven at excessive speed most/all of the time?

I've seen plenty of people (men and women) who speed recklessly in every sort of vehicle ranging from a Ford C-Max to a BMW X5 to a Renault Clio.

As said already, pointing the issue towards 'boy racers' (which implies young males in fast cars) almost absolves everyone else when in fact it can be any gender or age.
i.e. If someone listening to the ad doesn't fit the description then they may think "oh that doesn't sound like me at all, my driving must be fine".

I think a campaign that hints towards a young boy racer but then it's revealed to be some lad in his 50's or even an old woman may have more of an impact and hammer home the point that the car or age doesn't matter and it could be anyone.

ryan101

Statistically the boy racers are the ones doing the most killing

Maphisto

mike_ie wrote: »

The latest "initiative" by Mayo Co. Council...

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/boyracer-car-advert-tricks-thousands-to-listen-to-chilling-road-safety-warning-30316485.html

While I think that encouraging road safety and preventing potential deaths is applaudable, something like this goes a bit too far in my opinion. It's one thing putting an ad out there where people can choose to listen to it or not, but quite another to disguise it in such a way that people listen to it against their will, and have to pay for the privilege to do so by means of a phone charge. In that respect it's no different to spam links or similar, and if I were to do the same to fulfil my own agenda, I'd get roasted for it.

So what do the people of AH think? Praiseworthy initiative from the council, or an unjustifiable trick to force people to listen?

Well Mike its a dirty underhand trick by the council, but I don't give a flying fox if it saves one life.

Its nice to see a bit of constructive imagination from government, other than which new taxes to introduce. Fair play to them.

kneemos

Dravokivich wrote: »

Boy Racers only make a part of the problem. Pointing the issue towards them doesn't deal with accidents or fatalities on roads, what ever led up to them, or who was actually responsible. Once there's someone involved that fits an age profile the focus is always on them. A victim of an accident is involved too...

There's no denying young people have the highest accident rate,it's the nature of the beast and the same worldwide.

Kimbot

ryan101 wrote: »

Statistically the boy racers are the ones doing the most killing

Have you a link to this statistic?

Valetta

Maphisto wrote: »

Well Mike its a dirty underhand trick by the council, but I don't five a flying fox if it saves one life.

Its nice to see a bit of constructive imagination from government, other than which new taxes to introduce. Fair play to them.

+1.

You should be able to tick both options in the poll.

Caliden

ryan101 wrote: »

Statistically the boy racers are the ones doing the most killing

Link?

greenpilot

ryan101 wrote: »

And anything that can prevent just one tradegy is to be welcomed.
But this trick advert is just deceptive and dishonest to say the least.
Not a great example to be setting.
Then again what would you expect from any gombeen county council.

The Road Safety officer in Mayo Co. council is far from a gombeen. He is young, clever and probably one of the most proactive RSO of any council. He is regularly on National media pushing for safety on our roads and many RSO's in Europe could do well by taking a leaf from his book. Clever initiative in my opinion. Has us all talking about it, doesn't it.......

KrakityJones

No harm in trying something new but that was a waste of time I reckon. I know a lot of WRX drivers and the majority of them are in their 40's, not exactly boy racer category. It's the lads driving puntos and fiestas who THINK they are driving a subaru are far more dangerous. I'm guessing very few of the people who rang inquiring about that car were going to take much note of it.

Maybe just maybe a bit of driver's education in school like in the U.S would be a better use of money/better thinking.

Dravokivich

kneemos wrote: »

There's no denying young people have the highest accident rate,it's the nature of the beast and the same worldwide.

There's generally more young people than older ranges. So of course by pure volume alone more of them are going to be in accidents. Doesn't mean they caused them.

greenpilot wrote: »

The Road Safety officer in Mayo Co. council is far from a gombeen. He is young, clever and probably one of the most proactive RSO of any council. He is regularly on National media pushing for safety on our roads and many RSO's in Europe could do well by taking a leaf from his book. Clever initiative in my opinion. Has us all talking about it, doesn't it.......

We are talking about who they are targeting, not road safety.

Teyla Emmagan

That's really good, IMO.

The 167 should have their licences revokes for being too thick to drive.

ryan101

greenpilot wrote: »

The Road Safety officer in Mayo Co. council is far from a gombeen. He is young, clever and probably one of the most proactive RSO of any council. He is regularly on National media pushing for safety on our roads and many RSO's in Europe could do well by taking a leaf from his book. Clever initiative in my opinion. Has us all talking about it, doesn't it.......

Posting deceptive and dishonest ads don't make you clever, they just make you a dick

greenpilot

ryan101 wrote: »

Posting deceptive and dishonest ads don't make you clever, they just make you a dick

Yes, Ryan........very un-Christian.

kneemos

Caliden wrote: »

Link?

Doubt there's a category for boy racer on the accident report form.

kupus

The real shocker for me is the originality that came from a government dept.

Well done mayo co co. Credit where credit is due.

ryan101

Caliden wrote: »

Link?

World Health Organistion Fact Sheet, just one of many

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs358/en/

Age
Young adults aged between 15 and 44 years account for 59% of global road traffic deaths.

Sex
From a young age, males are more likely to be involved in road traffic crashes than females. More than three-quarters (77%) of all road traffic deaths occur among men. Among young drivers, young males under the age of 25 years are almost 3 times as likely to be killed in a car crash as young females.

kneemos

Dravokivich wrote: »

There's generally more young people than older ranges. So of course by pure volume alone more of them are going to be in accidents. Doesn't mean they caused them.



We are talking about who they are targeting, not road safety.

There's more 17-25 year olds than 25-80 year olds on the road????

ryan101

greenpilot wrote: »

Yes, Ryan........very un-Christian.

I doubt you have to be that to understand posting a deceptive and dishonest advert while preaching the morality of road safety is not that clever.

Caliden

ryan101 wrote: »

World Health Organistion Fact Sheet, just one of many

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs358/en/

They're not really 'doing the killing', as you said, rather they're being involved in road traffic accidents and getting killed themselves.

Not really related to the point the recorded message was trying to get across though was it?

Dravokivich

kneemos wrote: »

There's more 17-25 year olds than 25-80 year olds on the road????

You are comparing a range of 8years against a range of 55 years?

Maphisto

ryan101 wrote: »

I doubt you have to be that to understand posting a deceptive and dishonest advert while preaching the morality of road safety is not that clever.

So what?

I could argue that a person needs to be cleverer to be deceptive and dishonest than to be honest and straight-forward.

I could argue that reducing your speed is about self preservation and not solely a moral duty to others.

But I won't, because I don't care. If this clever, and relatively inexpensive, initiative by Mayo saves one life, that is good enough.

ryan101

Maphisto wrote: »

So what?

I could argue that a person needs to be cleverer to be deceptive and dishonest than to be honest and straight-forward.

So a local authority should be deceptive and dishonest when dealing with the public because that is 'cleverer' ? That explains a lot.

Phoebas

Pawwed Rig wrote: »

Is this the same council that recently got the roads blessed to cut down on road deaths? Nuff said

http://www.thejournal.ie/roads-in-mayo-get-prayers-and-blessings-in-a-bid-to-reduce-road-deathsroads-in-mayo-get-prayers-and-blessings-in-a-bid-to-reduce-road-deaths-1420708-Apr2014/

That's also a pretty novel idea to get the message out. The act of praying for road safety doesn't do anything, but the publicity around it might help.

Arthur Beesley

Have they worked out a way oh stop people hanging up now? Otherwise how are they being 'forced' to listen?

Fukuyama

A government body actually does a better in-house advertising job than most agencies could drum up (probably on a shoestring budget too!) and still people complain.

Lou.m

mike_ie wrote: »

The latest "initiative" by Mayo Co. Council...

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/boyracer-car-advert-tricks-thousands-to-listen-to-chilling-road-safety-warning-30316485.html

While I think that encouraging road safety and preventing potential deaths is applaudable, something like this goes a bit too far in my opinion. It's one thing putting an ad out there where people can choose to listen to it or not, but quite another to disguise it in such a way that people listen to it against their will, and have to pay for the privilege to do so by means of a phone charge. In that respect it's no different to spam links or similar, and if I were to do the same to fulfil my own agenda, I'd get roasted for it.

So what do the people of AH think? Praiseworthy initiative from the council, or an unjustifiable trick to force people to listen?

Surprisingly imaginative for a council.

Maphisto

ryan101 wrote: »

So a local authority should be deceptive and dishonest when dealing with the public because that is 'cleverer' ? That explains a lot.

Twist it around whatever way you like Ryan. That's not what I said and I think that even you would understand that.

We are talking about one advert, not the council's complete dealings with the public. In this case the end justifies the means.

padd b1975

[Deleted User] wrote: »

How many 18 year olds could get insured on a car like that?

Depends how rich their parents are.