What does it take to reach kids these days?

August 14, 2009 12:27 AM

The UK government has decided to buy into the blythe doll/manga trend when frightening kiddies into being safe.

Moving on from the now defunct 'Hedgehogs' campaign, featuring cute simple hedgehogs to spread the road safety message, direct.gov has hired an agency that obviously believes the way to get down with the kids is to buy into the goth/horror/manga look, and scare them into doing the right thing. Be sure to check out the games, like this one, which all seem to feature kids get slammed into by cars and bashed about.

(Would be interested if any Mefites know the agency responsible for this campaign)

posted by Megami (40 comments total)

Charlie says ... that's nothing compared to what they did to us when I was a kid.
I am the spirit of dark and lonely water
posted by seanyboy at 12:37 AM on August 14 [12 favorites]

Is...is anyone else playing the "cross the road" game and going for distance instead of actually crossing the road?
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:46 AM on August 14

I think the voiceover of the advert is Roger McGough, reading his own poetry
posted by communicator at 12:49 AM on August 14

Preposterous! There is not, nor shall there ever be, anything so quintessentially English as hedgehogs! And to remove these gentle, frighteningly cuddly creatures from their rightful place as teachers of road safety and replace them with vaguely grim children reminiscent of, well, Neil Gaiman characters? Simply appalling. I shall have to contact my MP.

</american LOLbritish snarking>

Anyhow, I hate to say it, but these guys indeed are cute - these are the old adverts you're talking about, no?

Stayin' Alive
Stayin' Alive ('Glow In The Dark' version)
Think
King Of The Road
Stop, Look, Listen, Live

... and these parodies are pretty great:

Don't Sing.
Really: don't sing.

I can see the attraction of having hedgehogs stand as spokespeople. We apparently tried this once over here, though I don't know that it worked too well - we Americans seem inexplicably to see hedgehogs as more dynamic, probably because we don't actually have any.
posted by koeselitz at 12:55 AM on August 14

For heaven's sakes. I know they're channeling Gorey and Lemony Snicket or something, but it's just plain terrible and morbid to have a bunch of bruised sad-eyed Keane children getting struck and flung repeatedly by autos. Even for Britain, that's bleak sauce.

I mean, I really tried to help him cross the street, I did.
posted by redsparkler at 12:58 AM on August 14 [2 favorites]

Blame the Japanese, I guess, who seem to love this sort of odd cultural pastiche.
posted by koeselitz at 12:59 AM on August 14

Whereas, the hedgehogs singing Beegees songs are perfect and catchy and adorable.
posted by redsparkler at 1:00 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]

I don't think it is Roger McGough doing the voiceover.
posted by seanyboy at 1:04 AM on August 14

No, you are right seanyboy. I was listening to it on my speakers, sound down low because I'm at work. Now I've put my headphones in and listened properly, it's more like a McGough-alike.
posted by communicator at 1:15 AM on August 14

Polish a floor and put a rug on it. You might as well set a mantrap.
posted by benzenedream at 1:16 AM on August 14 [2 favorites]

but it's just plain terrible and morbid to have a bunch of bruised sad-eyed Keane children getting struck and flung repeatedly by autos. Even for Britain, that's bleak sauce.

Actually, I was a little disappointed that the children could only be maimed, not actually killed, and no blood spatters. And I'm not even British.
posted by philip-random at 1:17 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]

What was wrong with Frogger?
posted by iamkimiam at 1:21 AM on August 14

Pet Sematary Speeding PSA.
posted by benzenedream at 1:23 AM on August 14

Actually, I was a little disappointed that the children could only be maimed, not actually killed, and no blood spatters.

And I am sure the adult designers felt the same way. But my five year old son - part of the target demographic - just didn't get it. He couldn't figure out if it was meant to be funny or scary. I personally (with no research or scientific thinking behind it) think that graphic campaigns using 'real' violence/accidents could work, as they bring home to kids that road safety is no laughing matter, and these things are scary and could hurt. Using hip/cool cartoon characters with an age group who are used to playing games online/on screen doesn't seem to have the same effect.

I also think the design is way too try-hard, but that is a separate issue.
posted by Megami at 1:25 AM on August 14

fuck, bloody baader-meinhoff phenomenon again, I was just looking back on Jimmy Savile's work, I remember him from being a kid in the UK. There he is, he turns up again a day later.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 1:34 AM on August 14

These kinds of campaigns are tricky for agencies, and I think they've done OK considering the hurdles that must have been involved. Not only does it need to appeal to kids, but it has to avoid strongly conflicting with adults' perceptions of what should be given to kids, and has to get past a government client.

I've been involved for pitches for things like sex education sites aimed at teenagers where the brief makes it clear the project is doomed before it starts, with the best of intentions but impossibly conflicting aims and requirements. Even when the client is willing to be a little daring, subtle restrictions have knock-on effects and the whole thing ends up reeking of Trendy Vicar Syndrome.
posted by malevolent at 2:00 AM on August 14 [3 favorites]

I am the spirit of dark and lonely water

It's cool to drive fast. 'Course it's cool. Just one question: IS THIS COOL???
posted by Greg Nog at 2:11 AM on August 14 [4 favorites]

While the need for this is clear (you can see the cancelling of the Green Cross and Tufty campaigns in the road death statistics), I wonder if a much simpler campaign, aimed at younger children, would be the way to go. Hammer them over the head with the message before they're old enough to have evolved decent media filters, and wait for it to bubble through to the numbers.

get past a government client.

*shudder*. The money's good, but... I'm finding ten years between government clients gives me time to recover. Give me a startup with one guy in charge and a strong vision any day of the week.
posted by Leon at 2:14 AM on August 14

Their eyes hunger for my soul. I can feel it.
posted by pyrex at 2:16 AM on August 14

"Tell them I hate them"
-H. J. Farnsworth
posted by Senor Cardgage at 2:26 AM on August 14

OK, so now we know that a bunch of old nerds don't think much of it (you'd've thunk!) I s'pose the important thing is, how do the younger people it's actually aimed at feel about it?

I get the feeling things have changed in childland since my days of the Tufty Club...
posted by i_cola at 2:32 AM on August 14

MetaFilter modulo old nerd opinions != something I give a shit about.
posted by fleacircus at 3:43 AM on August 14

Elmer the Safety Elephant:

Elmer the Safety Elephant was created to educate children about road safety. At first, he looked like an ordinary jungle elephant, but Elmer’s simple lessons taught through song and reinforced with a unique flag program, proved to be an extraordinary success. When he first appeared in Toronto in 1947, the incidence of traffic accidents involving children dropped by 44%. [...]

There's a CBC television report from 1955 on Elmer here. I can't make out the lyrics, but I think the kids sing a song (while their teacher plays the piano, of course) about a kid who didn't look both ways. Boom! And every school had an Elmer the Safety Elephant flag flying out front. If any kid was injured on the road, that kid's school had to lower its Elmer flag for a month.
posted by pracowity at 3:49 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]

They really should have had Zack Snyder do the animation... we would then have a sufficient amount of slow motion blood....
posted by HuronBob at 5:06 AM on August 14

Fail. Way to much fun to just let the kids get creamed.
posted by nax at 5:15 AM on August 14

The hedgehog videos were great.

A question for folks who live in countries where there are hedgehogs: do these little guys tend to get run over a lot? I got that idea somewhere. If that is true, I think it is kind of weird and at the same time strangely appropriate to use them as safety mascots.

Here in the American South, we don't have any "Safety Possums" that I know of.

Q: How many UNC students does it take to eat a possum?
A: Two, one to eat it and one to watch for cars.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: To prove to the possum that it could be done.

posted by marxchivist at 6:07 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]

The target audience is wrong, they need to target the adults. I'm not kidding. Every single day, I see parents running across the road with their kids. Usually when its the absolute worst place and time. The kids are dragged over with them, the "parent" oblivious to the example and message they're making. The kids would be fine if the adults weren't such fuckwits.
posted by daveyt at 6:08 AM on August 14

Daveyt, that is what they have done in Australia - aimed both at parents and drivers. Graphic 'bang' this is what happens when you speed/don't pay attention/let kids run on the road.
posted by Megami at 6:23 AM on August 14

To get the kid to go the farthest in the stop, look and listen game - just mess up the stop, the boy will fly for quite awhile.
posted by bigmusic at 6:31 AM on August 14

The British wouldn't have this problem if they'd stop driving on the wrong side of the road.
posted by Panjandrum at 6:32 AM on August 14

A question for folks who live in countries where there are hedgehogs: do these little guys tend to get run over a lot?

They used to. When I was a kid, hedgehog pancake was a very common sight. Today most UK hedgehogs seem to run from danger, rather than curling into a ball - they're certainly much rarer as roadkill.
posted by Leon at 6:35 AM on August 14

One think I noticed about the UK when I was last there was that they have more ways to festoon the top of a fence with something that hints, "Caution, climbing over this can lead to swift and untidy death!" than I ever thought possible.

And a surprising number of people getting hit by trains anyway.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 6:44 AM on August 14

@Kid

"And a surprising number of people getting hit by trains anyway."

Generally, this can be put down to Darwinism. Its generally quite hard to be hit by a train, you've got to try, or be drunk. Either way, most of the time, Darwinism.

To quote a good friend, danger is natures way of weeding out the idiots.
posted by daveyt at 7:10 AM on August 14

Sensible children. I have no power over them.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 7:57 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]

Get rid of most of the cars and I guarantee a drastic drop in fatalities of children crossing roads.

But don't worry, I know you don't really love children that much! Cars are cool! Kids are expensive! You can drive your car, but just try to drive your kid, and see what happens!
posted by Goofyy at 8:43 AM on August 14 [3 favorites]

Britain is a dangerous, accident-prone country, clearly.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:17 AM on August 14

From the examples I watched, the hedgehogs were more empowered to make good decisions rather than examples of failure like the big-eyed boy. I wonder which is considered to be more persuasive (see shame-based advertising from 30s to ?60s? and beyond).
posted by stevil at 11:19 AM on August 14 [1 favorite]

This woman is dying. She's dying because there's a fire in the house.

*runs crying from the living room*
posted by saturnine at 2:04 PM on August 14

they're certainly much rarer as roadkill

Natural selection. The ones who couldn't figure out to get out of the way didn't live long enough to breed. Result- smarter hedgehogs! Next thing you know they'll be running for parliament.
posted by nax at 6:05 AM on August 16

Hedgehogs are in decline in real life, not just in road safety ads. No one's sure why. One way they estimate the size of the population is to measure road deaths.
posted by Helga-woo at 7:42 AM on August 16