The notion that kids grow up to emulate their parents' driving habits fuels "Strings," an unusual spot created by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for Australia's Transport Accident Commission.
"Parents can't deny that their kids copy them. They see it every day in some way," agency creative director Stephen de Wolf tells AdFreak. "We just want to get into their psyches a little bit to have them question how they act behind the wheel."
To convey the power of parental role models, the minimalist spot shows a boy buckled into a seat behind his father, pretending to drive. He mimics every move his dad makes—such as shouting at other motorists and checking his phone—because the two are connected by puppeteers' wires.
Shot on a dark stage (and not in an actual vehicle), the vibe echoes this much-praised 2010 PSA from the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership in England, which also featured mock driving. "We felt keeping the creative idea simple was right," de Wolf says. "That meant keeping it out of a normal car scenario and finding a vehicle that let us show the variety of behaviors we had to show. From there, we got to the strings-puppet visual and the stage setting."
Though the set-up delivers a straightforward message—"What kind of driver are you raising?"—the filming posed some challenges.
"We had six hours to shoot the 60-second spot," de Wolf recalls, "but we also had to shoot a 30-second spot. The 30-second spot isn't a cutdown, it too is a one-take, all in-camera piece. This meant two different sets of synchronized actions from both our boy and our dad, for the two different time lengths. Thankfully, our boy—in his first acting job—picked everything up very, very quickly."
Some of Australia's top puppeteers "helped create the rig and kept the movements of the actors as real as possible," de Wolf adds. "We ended up with at least 20 takes for the 60-second spot alone. Out of those, only one or two had the actions perfectly synchronized and the right feel to the performances."
Backed by an ominous ambient music track, the surreal ride is certainly memorable, even chilling. But one wonders if it will break though without the intense drama and upsetting imagery that often define road-safety campaigns.
"After many years of shocking audiences, the Australian public have come to expect the crash, which limits its impact," says de Wolf. "We are increasingly trying to empower people to do the right thing, not berate them for doing something wrong. This is particularly true for parents, who would tend to opt out if we went the shock route, believing, 'That's not going to be me. I'm a good driver, and I know I'm a good parent.' "
CREDITS
Client: Transport Accident Commission
Amy Cockerell: Marketing Coordinator
Cherie Chandler: Marketing Project Manager
Samantha Buckis: Road Safety Project Coordinator
Samantha Cockfield: Senior Manager Road Safety
Agency: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Luke Thompson: Senior Art Director
Jim Robbins: Senior Copywriter
James McGrath: Creative Chairman
Ant Keogh: Executive Creative Director
Stephen de Wolf: Creative Director
Sharon Adams: Print Producer
Sonia Von Bibra: Executive Producer: TV
Karolina Bozajkovska: Senior Agency Producer: TV
Steve Pratt: Retoucher
Lee Simpson: Managing Partner
Naomi Gorringe: Group Account Director
Kate Joiner: Senior Account Manager
Patrick Nally: Account Executive
Matt Pearce: Planner
Tomas Mankovsky: Director (Repped by Blink)
Camilla Dehnert: Producer
Lucinda Thompson: Designer
Geoffrey Simpson: DOP/Cinematographer
Elodie Fouqueau: Editor (Method)
Duncan Horn: Flame Artist (Glassworks)
Theodore Vidgen: Music Composer/Arranger
Stephen Boniface: Photographer (Match Photography)
Postproduction Company: Method Studio/Glassworks
Production Company: Finch/Blink (Co Production)
Paul Le Coutier: Sound Designer/Engineer
Sound House: Flagstaff
Special/Visual Effects" Glassworks
