"A crash in Portarlington" Road Safety Advert

Atoms for Peace · 24-12-2017 10:06AM #1

What does that dose of misery in seemingly every ad break on tv actually achieve?
People responsible for such incidents are hardly the considerate type who will listen. While it must add salt to the wounds of the families of victims, espicially over Christmas.

Galwayguy35 · 24-12-2017 10:10AM

I'd imagine it's aimed at people who might be someone who drives at speed or drinks and drives and maybe watching what can happen would make them think twice about doing those kinds of things.

imme · 24-12-2017 10:30AM

The message is the message OP.

It's for everyone, drive safer, drive slower, it ain't no computer game, you can't reset a car crash.

bee06 · 24-12-2017 10:39AM

Hopefully it might also encourage someone to speak up and intervene if a loved one or friend is drinking and driving.

I hate the ad but if it saves a life then surely the rest of us can put up with a few minutes of depression watching it.

Hande hoche! · 24-12-2017 11:08AM

I miss the old ad with the headbangers.

godtabh · 24-12-2017 11:12AM

You should feel miserable watching this. A young boy lost his life because of this. I’d rather have this on repeat on every ad break till the end of time if it meant something similar didn’t happen again.

Thankfully i’ve Netflix (and don’t drink and drive)

splinter65 · 24-12-2017 11:13AM

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

What does that dose of misery in seemingly every ad break on tv actually achieve?
People responsible for such incidents are hardly the considerate type who will listen. While it must add salt to the wounds of the families of victims, espicially over Christmas.

The family actively participated in the making of the ad.
If your in a sitting room tomorrow or Tuesday with someone who you know is going to have plenty to drink and then get into the car to go visiting, then maybe the ad will force you to at least try to do something about it.

DeanAustin · 24-12-2017 11:15AM

Ah God love you. That two minutes of misery you endure must be terrible for you. What that family is going through every day of their lives is horrendous and all coz a selfish prick had 10 pints of cider and decided to get in his car and drive. If that ad makes even one person think, I’ll watch it a thousand times.

Ralf and Florian · 24-12-2017 11:33AM

Hope op wasn't around in the 70's and 80's. The road safety adverts I remember from then were like mini horror movies.

Atoms for Peace · 24-12-2017 11:39AM

Ralf and Florian wrote: »

Hope op wasn't around in the 70's and 80's. The road safety adverts I remember from then were like mini horror movies.

The more horrific ones are mere background noise now, I've been well desensitized to them. I do find the more more sedate ones actually more effective but familiarity does breed contempt.

King of Kings · 24-12-2017 11:41AM

DeanAustin wrote: »

Ah God love you. That two minutes of misery you endure must be terrible for you. What that family is going through every day of their lives is horrendous and all coz a selfish prick had 10 pints of cider and decided to get in his car and drive. If that ad makes even one person think, I’ll watch it a thousand times.

I think you've taken the OP up wrong.

It's a horrendous story and really makes me sad.

We may revel in the outrage of drink driving but we all know the 2 or 3 pint driver isn't causing carnage it's the 10 pint plus mad man.
Only several years inside will stop them

The ad bring us into the world of hurt caused by drink driving but I'm not sure it'll change much behaviour or least the serious side of it,

ednwireland · 24-12-2017 11:43AM

I'd say it was the guy without the seat belt that did the damage. No actually it was the beemer crossing the white line.

Always wear a seat belt!

ednwireland · 24-12-2017 11:43AM

I'd say it was the guy without the seat belt that did the damage. No actually it was the beemer crossing the white line.

Always wear a seat belt!

DeanAustin · 24-12-2017 11:47AM

King of Kings wrote: »

I think you've taken the OP up wrong.

It's a horrendous story and really makes me sad.

We may revel in the outrage of drink driving but we all know the 2 or 3 pint driver isn't causing carnage it's the 10 pint plus mad man.
Only several years inside will stop them

The ad bring us into the world of hurt caused by drink driving but I'm not sure it'll change much behaviour or least the serious side of it,

So you think 2 or 3 pints doesn’t make a difference? That it doesn’t impair the ability to react? That the law is there for no reason?

whoopsadoodles · 24-12-2017 11:56AM

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

While it must add salt to the wounds of the families of victims, espicially over Christmas.

Are you unfortunate enough to have lost someone you love on our roads?

January · 24-12-2017 01:21PM

I hate that ad, it always makes me well up, that poor family. But it's a necessary ad.

andekwarhola · 24-12-2017 01:21PM

If even one person thinks twice about driving around like a cnut and taking some loved one from their family, it's money well spent and an uncomfortable few minutes endured.

King of Kings · 24-12-2017 08:41PM

DeanAustin wrote: »

So you think 2 or 3 pints doesn’t make a difference? That it doesn’t impair the ability to react? That the law is there for no reason?

I don't think I said that , perhaps read exactly what I wrote.

seachto7 · 24-12-2017 09:05PM

Atoms for Peace wrote: »

What does that dose of misery in seemingly every ad break on tv actually achieve?
People responsible for such incidents are hardly the considerate type who will listen. While it must add salt to the wounds of the families of victims, espicially over Christmas.

I’m going to guess you are a millennial. All about “me me me”.

Do you think the people in that ad are actors ?

whoopsadoodles · 24-12-2017 09:11PM

seachto7 wrote: »

I’m going to guess you are a millennial. All about “me me me”.

Also patronising bullsh*t.

Pinning your level of empathy onto the year you were born. Ffs.

Badly Drunk Boy · 24-12-2017 09:22PM

My sister knows the family involved. It hurts them to see the ad, but they are willing to put up with that if it saves further lives.

Atlantic Dawn · 24-12-2017 09:27PM

Clunk click, every trip...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddNr7rebaQo

RobertKK · 24-12-2017 09:50PM

I think it is ineffective as it is on too often, too long, and I suspect a lot of people switch channel for something less morbid when it is on.

buried · 24-12-2017 10:44PM

That family and the other folk in the piece are actual heroes. Using the total darkness and pain they had to go through in order to help, teach and save the rest of their community. That's what the first heroes did back in the dawn of time to create that sort of universal archetype. That film definitely has saved lives. I call it a short film rather than a advert. Its not trying to sell you some useless rubbish you don't really need. It is total brutal truth and a message to look out for yourself and your community.

JimmyMcGill · 24-12-2017 10:52PM

DeanAustin wrote: »

So you think 2 or 3 pints doesn’t make a difference? That it doesn’t impair the ability to react? That the law is there for no reason?

The law in the 2 or 3 pints man scenario is a money making objective.
They're an easier target than any common house thief, who may carry on uninterrupted as usually there isn't a car available or " this is the traffic division" or any one of a multitude of copouts they have.

Pun intended.

whoopsadoodles · 24-12-2017 10:55PM

JimmyMcGill wrote: »

The law in the 2 or 3 pints man scenario is a money making objective.
They're an easier target than any common house thief, who may carry on uninterrupted as usually there isn't a car available or " this is the traffic division" or any one of a multitude of copouts they have.

Pun intended.

A common house thief is less likely to put a child in a coffin and his mother in a wheelchair.

Wibbs · 25-12-2017 12:20AM

DeanAustin wrote: »

So you think 2 or 3 pints doesn’t make a difference? That it doesn’t impair the ability to react?

Damn right it does. I'd be no lightweight on the beerage front, but no way would I drive with three just left the pub pints on board. One yeah. Two? Many moons ago I did one afternoon after two pints of plain(at a time when it would have had me under the limit) and I made an overtaking manoeuvre that I would not have made if I was stony cold sober. Thank christ at the time I was peddling a quick car, but if I had been in an average family car I would have had a bad accident and one involving other people. As it was I got a few extra grey hairs and I suspect so did two other road users. It's one of those times in my life where I consider the what ifs..

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Clunk click, every trip...

Its funny how those ads can embed in your brain. I remember that one well. I used to parrot it to my dad. A man who considered seatbelts a bit OTT and because he had actually lived through a bad accident that would have been otherwise fatal if he had worn one and hadn't been thrown clear of the car, this notion stuck with him for quite a while. But ten year old me and my plaintive nagging got him wearing his seatbelt.

* And that ad was definitely instrumental in that.

Another one from the UK I remember very clearly was the "only a fool breaks the two second rule".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf5d2DP4Pp0

I still often think of that one today, even when brakes are sooooo much better than they were back then(stick the average driver of today into even a properly sporty car of the 70's, even 80's and watch their hair go instantly white and their eyes go big and round the first time they hit the brakes).

Another one from the same source that hit me and I still consider is this;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ojHWOiA4Xk

So yeah I reckon these ads do work and do impact a fair chunk of people. I would say though that IMHO the more simplistic they make them the better. I personally think the more emotionally driven ones, while harrowing can often lead to emotion fatigue and not hit home. The catchphrase type of ad campaigns IMHO anyway, are better on that score. People have short attention spans for things they never think will affect them. I did and do, but yet I remember those two safety campaigns near 40 years later and regularly apply them, if subconsciously.

*Mind you this appreciation for safety didn't put him off teaching me the basics of driving at pretty much the same age(closer to 12 TBH, though had been doing the sitting on his lap on family trips to Kerry and the like working the steering. I can pin that practice down to when I was ten), so that he could relax when we'd be driving home after a day of going fishing. Yep. You read that correctly. Years later I put it to him "like WTF Da?". His response: well it's good to learn early and it was an automatic so you were fine just dealing with the steering. :eek: Different times. Though not that long ago.

"A crash in Portarlington" Road Safety Advert

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