Sarah Dragon

CAS 137 H

Dr. Freymiller

11 October 2016

Think Twice

According to a study done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety referenced on

the Texting Thumb Bands Group, texting while driving causes eleven deaths every day. Texting

and driving is a major problem in society today, and although people know the risks they

continue to text and drive. Some advertisements do have an effect on the public when it comes to

this issue. A texting and driving ad produced by the Brake Campaign and a commercial put out

by the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

(NHTSA) group called The Tombras Group are two of the most powerful texting and driving

advertisements. The two advertisements highlighted are two different forms of media, but both

use rhetorical strategies to persuade their audiences that texting and driving needs to be stopped.

The advertisements are so powerful because of their use of Kairos, the emotional appeal of

pathos, and the credibility of ethos.

If someone asked Are you dying to reply? most people would not think about the literal

meaning of the question. The Brake Campaigns texting and driving ad puts a deadly twist on

what would be seen as just a lighthearted joke, but by asking Are u dying 2 snd reply?

accompanied with the image of a dead woman on a morgue table they are forcing the audience to

want to stop texting and driving right away. The bold, black text draws the audiences attention

straight to the message. This makes the audience consider the message before anything else in
the advertisement, making them want to act right away. This advertisement forces the audience

to react, to want to take action as soon as possible.

Kairos is very prevalent in The Tombras Groups commercial, forcing the audience to

react and want to be a part of the movement to stop texting and driving. There are very minimal

words or text throughout the commercial but the events make the message crystal clear. The

audience watches three happy teens get crushed by an eighteen-wheeler after running a stop sign

because the girl behind the wheel was texting. The graphically disturbing footage of the crash

from a point of view no one has ever seen before gives the audience the chills. Kairos is very

explicit because anyone watching this commercial will forever remember those teens being

tossed around the spinning car and think long and hard about texting and driving. The impact of

this commercial is immediate on the audience. Society is not used to truly seeing a car crash like

the way this commercial shows you, it brings all the statistics to life. People hear texting and

driving statistics every day, but they continue to do it because no one ever believes that it will

happen to them. This commercial shows the audience it can happen to anyone, at any time, and

anywhere if you take the risk to text and drive, and it is through this that they force the audience

to want to stop this issue the second the commercial is over.

The emotions provoked by the advertisements are the fundamental reason as to why they

are so powerful. The Brake Campaigns advertisement only has two colors in it, black and the

blue-gray. The somber blue-gray background to the ad provoke unsettling, somber emotions. The

dull background allows the black text to be the clear focal point, while the dead woman remains

in the background. She is completely overshadowed by the message, leading to audience to

retract their attention from her, which brings their attention to the message itself. The message is

very straight forward, in texting lingo, and begs the audience if they are dying to send a reply.
The Brake Campaign portrays her as just another statistic of texting and driving with the :X, or

dead face emoticon covering her face, hiding her identity. This leads the audience to believe that

it could be anyone on that table, that it could be anyone that can die at the hand of texting and

driving. That alone is a very scary thought that will stay with the audience.

The Tombras Groups commercial is very different not only because it is a commercial,

but that it uses almost no text to provoke the disturbing emotions of pathos from its audience.

The audience sees friends driving in the car together, having fun and laughing. The driver takes

her eyes off the road to send a quick text, runs a stop sign, and suddenly a speeding truck slams

into the side of the car. The kids are sent into a slow motion spin, where the audience sees glass

shattering, heads snapping back and forth, and blood from the people flying around the car. This

gruesome commercial persuades the audience to fight texting and driving because seeing a car

accident from the point of view is so disturbing and horrifying for the audience, that they feel

they need to stop texting and driving so that they never have to feel the way those teens felt.

According to an article posted by a website called the Advertising Age, texting has become so

ingrained with younger people, research shows they feel obligated to send and read text

messages, even while driving (McCarthy). This commercial is so emotionally overpowering

because of the severity and grisly details the Tombras Group used, anyone who sees this

advertisement will definitely view texting and driving in a much different light than they

previously did.

Credibility of these advertisements is very solid because both were produced by widely

known groups working to end texting and driving. The Brake Campaign is a United Kingdom

based organization that has worked since 2005 to make the roads safer for everyone. Their

advertisement campaigns have ranged to cover all sorts of distracted driving issues, like texting
and driving. Through their website, the Brake Campaign offers a wide range of services like

victim support, seminars for schools and communities, training events to reduce distracted

driving, and much more. Their credibility helps the audience understand their dedication to their

mission, making their advertisement that much more powerful.

The Tombras Group has worked tirelessly on all sorts of distracted driving

advertisements to get their audience to understand their commitment and urgency to end

distracted driving accidents. As a group under the U.S. Department of Transportations National

Highway Traffic Safety Association since 2004 it is very clear to their audience that they are a

very credible source to produce this type of powerful advertisement. They have also produced

other major distracted driving campaigns like Click it or ticket and Drive sober Get Pulled

Over which are widely known across the United States. They are a very notorious advertisement

agency with accolades such as being recognized by Adweek multiple times on their top-10 list,

and they were also named the National Small Agency of the Year by Ad Age, according to their

website. The Tombras Groups status as one of the best advertisement agencies in the country,

paired with their success on past ad campaigns makes their message dominant in the eyes of

their audience.

Texting and driving is one of the leading issues in the world today. There are countless

advertisements that give people countless reasons not to text and drive, but sometimes it is the

advertisements that dont say much that have the most considerable effect on society.

Advertisements like those put out by the Brake Campaign and the Tombras Group that highlight

the most gruesome aspects of the results of texting and driving and make their audiences think

twice about sending that quick reply. Through their use of Kairos both advertisements use

minimal text and vivid details to compel their audience to stop texting and driving immediately.
The emotional characteristics of both advertisements really pull the audience into the world

where they can envision themselves in the position of the characters in the ads. It is rare that

companies will use such horrifying details in advertisements like these campaigns did, but

because they did it allows the audience to see the issue from a whole different emotional

standpoint that puts them at the center of the issue. The credibility of the campaigns also allows

them to persuade the reader to take their message seriously because they have experience in

dealing with issues within distracted driving. A 2015 Erie Insurance distracted driving survey

reported that one-third of drivers admitted to texting while driving, and three-quarters saying

theyve seen others do it (Department of Transportation). After seeing advertisements as

powerful as these, would you still take the risk?

 Works Cited

Bands, Texting Thumb. "Texting and Driving Statistics." Texting and Driving Statistics. Texting

Thumb Bands, 2010. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.

Brake Campaign. "Brake: Don't Text and Drive, 4." Brake The Road Safety Campaign. Brake

Campaign, Aug. 2012. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.

Department of Transportation. "Facts and Statistics." Distracted Driving : Facts And Statistics.

Department of Transportation, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

McCarthy., Michael. "NHTSA Launches National Ad Campaign to Combat Texting and

Driving." Advertising Age News RSS. Ad Age, 03 Apr. 2014. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

The Tombras Group. "About | Tombras." Tombras. NHTSA Tombras Group, 1946. Web. 10

Oct. 2016.

U Drive. U Text. U Pay. Dir. The Tombras Group. U.S. Department of Transportation's National

Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 03 Apr. 2014. Web. 08 Oct. 2016.

 Important Media

Link to watch commercial: http://adage.com/article/news/nhtsa-launches-campaign-combat-

texting-driving/292472/

Brake Campaign Advertisement: