In an intriguing role reversal, a world of crash test dummies wakes up, gets ready for work and begins the workday by launching crash test humans down a path toward an immobile cement wall. It’s all part of a Finnish Ministry of Transport campaign created by Publicis Helsinki to combat “the growing attitude problem amongst youth” or the rise of increasingly belligerent idiots called teens. The campaign’s goal is to get kids to wear their seat belts
The beginning is oddly reminiscent of Jim Carrey’s The Truman Show but we’re thinking the ending isn’t violent enough. If adver-death is becoming the norm, we’d expect to see far more blood and guts from these sorts of “wear your seatbelt campaigns.”
That said, even scare tactics like this rarely work. A teen is invincible. At that age, nothing can go wrong; you can’t get hurt. Many psychologists say it’s peer pressure. I’ll smoke because I don’t want to be a loser. I’ll drink because I want to be cool. I’ll do drugs because I don’t want to be the band geek in the corner. I’ll drive fast because it’s fun. I won’t wear my seatbelt because…I am invincible and nothing can go wrong. How do you combat that mentality short of parents literally collaring their kids with a dog leash?
Certainly all kids are not this dumb. Unfortunately, it’s the un-dumb ones that, many times, due, in part, to the desire to be liked, won’t be the one who decides not to get in the car with their drunk friend thereby ostracizing them self from the world of cool and acceptance but the one who dies when the inebriated friend hits the telephone pole at 80 miles per hour.
