24/8/2006 - I'm guilty!

A while ago I was given the job of animating a TV commercial that was to promote the wearing of car seatbelts.  The department of Transport had reported that there was a strong resistance to wearing seatbelts, particularly with older drivers, and an advertising campaign was needed to convince drivers this was in fact a safe thing to do.

As I began developing the script for the 30-second spot, my thoughts went something like this:  How best to get to the adults and change their behaviour?  How do you make adults remember as soon as they get into the car that they should buckle-up? 

I know! … I’ll do it through the kids.  By getting the kids on side, by ‘convincing’ them that wearing seatbelts is a cool rule, I can get their well-known persuasive powers to work on the adults in charge of the vehicle.

To enact my bit of indoctrination, I adapted a catchy phrase I had heard from the MRD, ‘Buckle Up, Click, Clack!’ and extended it.  Here is the verse –

Buckle Up, Click-Clack, Buckle Up, Click-Clack!

Buckle in the front and buckle in the Back,

…And in the middle, too.

Click, Clack!!

Now put this to a really catchy piece of music, a jingle, courtesy of a local sound house.  Once you have the kids singing along – and repeating it daily  - you’ve got em…. for life!

Mind you, this is nothing new.  How many beer commercials can your children sing?  The beer company ads are their investment for on-side future beer drinkers -

“I feel like a Tooheys, I feel like a Tooheys …..”

OK, they don’t drink beer now ( maybe they do) but they will still be humming that damned song in years to come.  The key word here is ‘pre-disposition’.

In years to come they *may* try drinking beer and most likely will give Tooheys a try ….

Betcha!