Image Attribution: “Traffic Police Ad” by Amur Region Traffic Police Department is licensed under CC0. Image Adapted By: Arseniia Kobzareva (See interactive map)
Written by Arseniia K.
Sept 23rd , 2020
VISA 1500_01
Car crashes are an important topic to discuss, but unfortunately, people afraid of it and try to avoid the dialogues about accidents on the roads, in this case, social advertising helps remind people about the dark side of driving. The advertising I have chosen for the assignment is a social one, which was created and designed by a Russian local traffic police department where my farther works. It shows a little boy, who was an actual crash victim in my city ( the police used the photo of a real victim with permission from the victim’s parents ), and the heartbreaking description says “Mummy, don’t wait for me at home – the driver was in a hurry.”
The composition of this advert is quite simple. On the left-hand corner, we can see a picture of a little child who is staying on the highway. The logo of “Amur Region Traffic Police” is in the lower right-hand corner and the description I have mentioned before right above this logo.
As we can observe, the location from the background is an isolated long road, the street lamps are very faint and the atmosphere is dark and scary which increases the impact of this social advert. From the foreground, the sad-looking child is focused on the viewers, he is glowing bright white and we can even see the part of the road through his body. The boy looks like a ghost and that makes the advertisement sadder, considering that he is dead because of the irresponsible driver. Another interesting detail in the photo is the background of the billboard. There is a broken car behind billboard, I think this car was in another accident but the fact that it is right above the billboard has an influence on our perception.
I see this advert as a very effective one. The message stays in memory for a long time. I remember this advertisement very well, even after 10 years since the moment I have seen it for the first time. When I became a driver, every time this ad popped in my head, it evokes a sense of responsibility in my mind. The strong effect of this social advertising has been created by adding a photo of a pure child and the dark atmosphere around him, which leads drivers to think twice if they want to speed up.
As far as I am concerned, now this ad is no longer at the city center or above highways. The last ad with this image is located only in the parking lot of a local traffic police department.
The positive side is that the ad is a little bit scary it does not get any critics from the citizens because they understand the importance of this message.
Work Cited
This Ad created by https://гибдд.рф/r/28