Seat belt shock ads aim to jolt non-bucklers

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Crash test dummies retire -- for now

January 28, 1999
Web posted at: 1:15 p.m. EST (1815 GMT)

In this story:

• What the spots show
• 'Reality is the best medicine'
• Seat belt usage on a plateau
• Related stories and sites

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Shock is replacing comedy in the government's bid to boost seat belt usage which has plateaued after climbing in recent years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration hopes a pair of new TV spots that begin airing next month will jolt non-users into buckling up.

Instead of Vince and Larry, the comical and lifelike crash test dummies that dust themselves off after a crash, viewers will see human actors engaged in real-life moments that are suddenly cut short by an automobile accident.

What the spots show

In a spot titled "Ice Cream," a husband whose pregnant wife has a late-night craving for ice cream gets into his car to drive to the store. As he pulls out of the driveway and into the street, the car is hit head-on.

Another ad, titled "Cruising," begins with young people in two cars -- girls in one; boys in the other -- checking each other out as the vehicles drive side-by-side on a city street. A moment later, with the two vehicles stopped alongside each other at a traffic light, a speeding van rams one of them from behind.

After each scene, the caption on the screen asks, "Didn't see that coming? No one ever does. Buckle up."

'Reality is the best medicine'

These dummies are smart enough to buckle up, but the duo face "semi-retirement" in favor of reality-based ads

"A little dose of reality is sometimes the best medicine," says Dr. Ricardo Martinez, who heads the NHTSA.

"Crashes are sudden, violent and unexpected. Unfortunately, a lot of people choose not to wear their seat belt, because they are in familiar territory around the neighborhood. They're not on the highways. They feel safe, (but) they're kidding themselves," he told CNN on Thursday.

Martinez, a former emergency room physician, pushed for the new advertising approach after watching a series of gruesome traffic commercials aired in Australia.

Emergency rooms in U.S. hospitals "are filled with people who didn't see it coming," he said, borrowing the tag line from the new TV spots which will soon replace the Vince and Larry ads.

Even with the more graphic approach, the ads targeted to U.S. drivers "are not even close (to being) as shocking as they are in other countries."

Martinez

Seat belt usage on a plateau

While Vince and Larry are fading away, their humor has been effective over the years. In 1985, about 21 percent of the driving population wore seat belts; in 1996, the figure was up to 68 percent.

That, however, is about where it has stayed.

President Clinton has announced a goal of getting seat belt usage up to 85 percent by the end of the year, but Martinez concedes there are some high-risk drivers who will never wear seat belts:

• The casual wearer -- someone who is not against buckling up, but who does not do so on every trip, especially on short drives, because "they feel totally in charge in their car."
• "The second high-risk group," he said, "are people who drink and drive."

As for the crash test dummies, they are in "semi-retirement," according to Ken Ulmer, spokesman for the Advertising Council, a nonprofit group that works to gain free air time and print space for public service announcements. He expects them to be used again in children's programming.

Due to their frequent exposure on television and radio, Vince and Larry may have been victims of their own success, said Emily Soell, a member of the Advertising Council's advertising review committee.

"After a while, even the best advertising begins to blur itself, because people have seen it so much that they no longer listen," she said. "People found it so entertaining they end up paying attention more to the entertainment value."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.