Continuing with the theme Road Safety Week, an initiative promoted by national charity BRAKE, we are asking you to take a trip down memory lane with us.
We have put together a small collection of road safety advertising campaigns spanning over 50 years, some fun and some shocking but all with the main aim of encouraging safer road use, reducing road death and fatalities.
Which road safety video do you remember?
They say that your taste in music shows up your age but which of the following films you remember seeing at school could prove just as revealing.
There are some amusing animated characters, some shocking haircuts and a few blasts from the past but we hope the over-riding message that we all need to take great care when on the roads doesn’t get lost along the way;
1950s – 1970s Tufty Fluffytail
He’s the undisputed king of road safety. Tufty Fluffytail was created in 1953 for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
The campaign was aimed at pre-school children spawning the Tufty Club in 1961 which distributed 30,000 books to children. By the early 1970s around 2m children had joined up and Tufty Club memorabilia has become a collectors’ favourite.
1960s Early Road Safety film
Those were the days, empty roads and vehicles that could barely touch 60 mph on a good day. Here’s an early Road Safety film taking a humorous look at driver behaviour on frost and snow covered roads.
1975 Green Cross Code Man
The lycra clad Super Hero played by David Prowse kicked off the highly original Green Cross Code campaign; it halved the number of deaths on British roads within a decade.
In the films, Green Cross Man had the power to teleport from his monitoring station at Green Cross Control to any location where youths were in need of pedestrian safety instruction. He accomplishes this by use of a wristwatch-like “Dematerialiser” device.
1976 Kevin Keegan
Our Kev, ably supported by a stunning haircut, helps a small child cross the road. “Thank you, Mr Keegan!” Alvin Stardust also appeared in an ad from the Children’s Heroes’ campaign, which tried to raise awareness of the Green Cross Code that launched in 1971.
The number of road traffic casualties dropped by 11% immediately after the launch, but had started creeping up again after six months.
1983 The Message
The Green Cross Code decided to “get down with kids” on this one using rap music from none other Grand Master Flash. No doubt this one will be a firm favourite with motorists in their forties and over.
1997 Hedgehogs
An animated hedgehog sings about the everyday routes we know, the dangers we may meet along the way, and how we should be aware of these dangers.
It features a journey through a town environment – shops, pavements, zebra crossings, a park, gates and roads. The hedgehogs are having fun while staying safe – ‘Stop, Look, Listen, Live is the theme of the day
2000’s Its 30 for a Reason
– A shocking and haunting advert. A little girl explains that if she’s hit by a car at 40mph there’s an 80 per cent chance she’ll die. If hit at 30mph there’s an 80 per cent chance she’ll live.
2014 THINK!
– 50th anniversary of anti-drink drive campaigning. Although road deaths caused by drink drivers have fallen significantly from 1,640 in 1967 to 230 deaths in 2012, this film reminds viewers that one death on our roads is still one too many.
Plan Insurance are specialist insurance brokers for professional road based businesses. As such road safety is a prime concern of our clients and we hope our black taxi, chauffeur, hauliers and motor trade insurance clients will help promote BRAKE’s “Road Safety Week” campaign by letting us know which film they remember being shown at school.