Unit 2 Assignment 2 by Alice Luscombe

Visual Thinking Illustrated Essay By Alice Luscombe

How an organisation expresses it’s voice about drink driving issues and elicits a response from an audience ‘Propaganda and protest through the graphic arts have a long and turbulent history that stretches far back over the centuries, and shadows developments in print technology. Social satire, political cartooning, pamphleting, graffiti and other types of agitation in current usage all have roots in the very distant past’ (McQuiston, L. 1993. P. 14)

Figure 1

THINK! are a UK based organisation with aims that their campaigns, such as the drink driving will increase awareness, reinforce and build the social stigma and offer in-pub solutions to help drivers avoid the temptation to drink alcohol. THINK! welcomes support in getting their message out to drivers about the consequences of drink driving, especially the fatal accidents that can occur, THINK! campaign resources, such as poster and leaflets, can be ordered free of charge. They are constantly coming up with effective new ways to convey their message regarding drink driving. Figure 1 is just one of the most recent examples that THINK! have launched since their campaigning began 50 years ago. The aim of this essay is to show how THINK! has influenced awareness about drink driving and how they, as an organisation have decreased the number of road accidents caused by drink drivers. ‘Propaganda is a form of communication that… attempts to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.’ (Jowett, G. and O’Donnell, V. 2011. P. 1) There are three different types of propaganda, white, grey and black. Drink driving awareness campaigns such as this one are seen as white propaganda as it ‘comes from a source that is identified correctly and the information in the message tends to be accurate.’(Jowett, G. and

O’Donnell, V. 2011. P. 8) The other types of propaganda are black which is ‘credited to a false source, and it spreads lies, fabrication, and deceptions’. (Jowett, G. and O’Donnell, V. 2011. P. 9) By this Jowett and O’Donnell are saying that black propaganda is always one sided and it is typically used to embarrass or misrepresent the enemy. Finally, ‘Grey propaganda [which] is somewhere between white and black propaganda’, (Jowett, G. and O’Donnell, V. 2011. P.13) this means that the material isn’t always correct which makes its accuracy uncertain. The aim of Figure 1’s poster propaganda is to inform the reader of the consequences of drink driving and implement a sense of fear about them; ‘Public opinion and behaviour change can be affected by propaganda.’ (Jowett, G. and O’Donnell, V. 2011. P. 1) Many campaign posters such as the Consenso BBDO’s, windscreen flyers show in Figure 2, use the shock factor within propaganda to make the audience feel an emotional response regarding the posters. The THINK! poster is not eliciting a shocked response from the audience; instead it’s playing with the audience’s fear of being

Figure 2

imprisoned and the ramification of being caught drink driving. When looking at Figure 2, ‘Please don’t speed near schools’ campaign posters they were placed, image side down, on the windscreens of cars parked near schools in Waikato, New Zealand, which has a direct impact on the target audience. This nature of advertisement campaigns has a ‘seriously hard hitting’ (Lucas, G. Dorrian, M. and Montague, T. 2006 p. 55) shock factor and although it is still white propaganda ‘it is presented in a manner that attempts to convince the audience that the sender is the “good guy”’ (Jowett, G. and O’Donnell, V. 2011. P. 8) or some sort of higher power by whom they should abide by. However this particular image may not always have the desired effect as the emotional response it evokes, can sometimes override the message. As the target audience will be ‘parents who rush to drop their kids at school each morning’ (Lucas, G. Dorrian, M. and Montague, T. 2006 p. 55) this form of passionate propaganda will cause the parents to react as if the child on the poster was their own. Playing with the audience’s emotions is an extremely clever way of advertising. It stimulates fear in people so that they listen. The question that must be asked, is that is imagery such as this ‘Please don’t speed near schools’ poster so commonly seen that, people are becoming immune to it’s emotional content? ‘In today’s society, with the increasingly cluttered advertising space, marketers are challenged with the task of breaking through the clutter in an attempt to get their respective brand noticed’. (Urwin, B. 2014. P.14), This controversial use of shock technique in advertising can sometimes cause a reverse intended effect, as it can create disgust towards the brand by giving it a negative image. In these modern times advertising is losing its shock value and

therefore is not so controversial anymore. Overall with this THINK! drink-driving poster it shows some very safe imagery and therefore doesn’t create a controversial distaste towards the subject. Woman are known to be more emotionally affected by images of children and families in pain and distressed than men. ‘It is known that women often consider emotional events to be more emotionally stimulating than men do.’ (The Daily Mail. 2015.) Men tend to be more concerned about the consequences – loss of employment, legal action and possibly imprisonment. This gender specific response is highlighted in Maria McCarthy talk in The Telegraph when she discusses how ‘Drink-driving ads need to show women behind the wheel, not just as weeping victims’. (McCarthy, M. 2014.) Within this ‘Face the Consequences’ campaign, THINK! have only used men’s faces because ‘Men are always shown as the guilty party. Women [are] only feature as crash victims [with] tearful children and reproachful wives.’ (McCarthy, M. 2014.) Maria McCarthy talks about how companies need to start marketing woman in a less stereotypical way as a lot of companies including THINK! are just looking at the highest statists that do show that men are more likely to cause drink driving accidents; but that still shouldn’t exclude females as their target audience as well. ‘A spokesman from the government’s THINK! drink-drive campaign said: “We constantly monitor drink-drive statistics such as casualties, convictions and police breath test data to inform our campaign. Young men aged 17 to 29 continue to be our core target audience – men account for two-thirds of all drink-drive casualties, and three-quarters of those killed or seriously injured. This year we are targeting women to challenge those who drink and drive and to ensure that drink-driving continues to be a socially unacceptable behavior.”’ (The Guardian. 2014.) In 1979, 1,640 out of a total of 7,319 road deaths were associated with drink driving and since 2012 only 230 deaths (2012) have been recorded. If you cause death by careless driving when under the influence of alcohol you may be charged and sentences to 14 years’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, a ban from driving for a least two years and an extended driving test before having your licence returned to you. Breath testing by the police is the most commonly used method to estimate BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) levels and the alcohol limits for drivers in England and Wales is 35 micrograms of alcohol in 100 milliliters of breath. The amount of alcohol that someone can consume and stay under the limit depends on many different factures such as weight, gender, metabolism, amount and type of drink, age, stress levels and what you have recently eaten. Most of the advertisements, including this one, don’t include information such as this and therefore people are uninformed on how much alcohol they can consume before driving. Alcohol affects your ability to, process information and decreases your response time. These factors are highlighted in THINK!’s drink driving television advertisements but they are not always shown on their posters. The three most common drink driving offences are ‘Driving with excess alcohol, otherwise known as drink driving, Drunk in charge of a vehicle, Failing to provide a specimen.’

THINK’s and law enforcement work together within all the drink driving campaigns and ‘The law is one instrument we use to enforce agreed ethics and moral values’ (Roberts, L. 2006. P. 44) and therefore THINK! are engaged within a mutual agreement with the government to produce material that enforces these ethical values. In the last 50 years road casualties caused by drink driving have fallen and this is why THINK have recently released a ’50 years’ drink driving campaign to celebrate but they feel that ‘there is still some way to go to reduce deaths.’(Judd,V. 2015. [Email]) The THINK! Team works in partnership with emergency service, road safety officers, the armed services, driving instructors and other road safety professionals to produce effective local safety campaigns. THINK!’s target market are mainly from ages 17 to 29 years old but with a particular focus on young men. THINK! have used this target market because young men are easily impressionable and drinking alcohol can sometimes be seen as a competition to them. Saatchi and Saatchi are an American global communications and advertising agency network with 140 offices in 76 countries. One of Saatchi and Saatchi’s campaigns was their guerrilla advertising campaign in Sydney, Australia. ‘Drink Driving Ends Here’ shows black skid marks leading from the road, up onto the pavement and straight into a brick wall. This obviously has a shock factor to it and it also grabs people’s attention when they walk past. This piece of advertising has a clear point to make where as I feel that the

Figure 3

‘Drink Drive and Face the Consequences’ poster doesn’t. As soon as you look at the THINK! poster you don’t consider drink driving, until you read the caption below the image, where as the Saatchi and Saatchi advertisement all you have to do is see the clear, bold lettering saying ‘Drink Driving’ and the point is made straight away.

Seamus Ryan was the photographer for THINK!’s ‘Face the Consequences’ (Figure 1) campaign poster and he is an extremely versatile photographer, as he is constantly switching between photographing celebrities to doing portraitures on ‘Sunday Shoots’. ‘Sunday Shoots’ adds to Seamus Ryan’s on going portrait project, because of these portraits powerful qualities, they lend themselves to the THINK! photographs that he has done. Seamus Ryan’s photography clearly reflects his strong passion for people and although the portraits on the front of the poster have a very minimal look to them they still communicate the point well. The facial expressions on all of the faces are perfect for the advertisement as you can clearly see

that drink driving is a serious subject and therefore serious expressions are needed. Seamus Ryan has also made the bottom of the faces join up to give them a unified look, as if they were one face. The question that has to be made is why did Seamus Ryan crop the faces together or was it not his choice? You can tell that Seamus Ryan has a true passion for portrait photography and but when looking through all of his previous work, he hardly ever crops peoples faces out of the image THINK! mainly launch their advertisements near Christmas and New Year time because during the holiday period people are more likely to be going out to Christmas parties and visiting family. They celebrate by drinking alcohol and not understanding or being aware of the dangers of drink driving. ‘Drink drive and face the consequences’ (Figure 1) posters were launched in December 2014 near the Christmas period at Suffolk Roadsafe alongside a radio announcement. Over the years THINK!’s drink driving campaigns have changed drastically, from showing hard-hitting graphic scenes of a Figure 4

car accident to now using simple, straight to the point imagery. In these modern days a lot of companies can be criticised for creating a controversial campaign and you can tell that THINK! are aware of this and therefore are creating softer campaigns. The first drink driving campaign that THINK! released was in 1964, which was three years before the legal drinkdriving limit was even set. Without comparing the obvious difference in colours between this poster and the ‘face the consequences’ poster, you can clearly see that there are still some Figure 5

similarities between the two designs. Both

posters are trying to communicate a similar response from the audience. They want the audience to feel concerned and worried about the level of alcohol that they are consuming before driving and THINK! wants them to understand the consequences. Both posters show a centred image surrounded by text so that the reader’s eye is drawn to the image first and they

are intrigued so they read the text. The texts on both posters show two different sized texts, which forces the reader to concentrate and emphasise the serious nature of the subject. Overall THINK! do have a clear voice as they have shown over 50 years of campaigns. They have managed to increase the awareness of drink driving and reduce the amount of road accidents. THINK! show their powerful feelings towards drink driving through their strong, hard-hitting text and imagery. THINK! manage to communicate their message about the consequences of drink driving well. Although they don’t always use shock imagery, their message is still strong and to the point. It’s refreshing to see posters that do not contain scenes that cause a shocked response but convey their message in a more subtle but vividly memorable fashion. ‘There is a heightened awareness in the world community of the numerous issues that both directly and indirectly affects our live’ (Amazon. n.d.) and THINK! are just one of many organisations that are doing their bit to help.

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List of Figures Figure 1 – ‘Drink Drive and Face the Consequences’ THINK! Campaign poster Audioboom. (2014). Financial consequences (Drink drive campaign). [online]. Available from: https://audioboom.com/boos/2358897-financial-consequences-drink-drivecampaign. [Accessed 12 February 2015]. Figure 2 – Windscreen Flyer Coloribus. (2004). Environment Waikato. [online]. Available from: http://www.coloribus.com/adsarchive/prints/environment-waikato-windscreen-flyer5643555/ [Accessed on 5 February 2015]. Figure 3 – ‘Drink Driving Ends Here’ Stevenson, S. (2010). Anti Drink Driving. [online]. Available from: http://innovativeyes.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/anti-drink-driving.html [Accessed 6 February 2015]. Figure 4 – ‘Look her in the eye. Then say a quick drink never hurt anyone.’ Department of Transport. (n.d.). THINK Downloads [online] Available from: https://extranet.dft.gov.uk/think-downloads/50-years-of-campaigning-against-drink-drive/ [Accessed 7 February]. Figure 5 – ‘Don’t ask a man to drink and drive – he’s got too much to lose’ Williams, D. and Robbins, A. (2014). 50 years of drink-driving campaigns. Motoring. [online] Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/road-safety/11215676/50years-of-drink-driving-campaigns.html [Accessed 27 January 2015].