Last Friday I showed you the options we have for the next cover of Archive, Vol. 2-19, which will be available in the middle of April. We had lots of comments and recommendations from our readers, all across the spectrum of the alternatives offered. Which means that in the end, I had to decide on the next cover myself. It is taken from the quite extraordinary road safety campaign from Clemenger BBDO, Wellington, New Zealand boasting the tagline Belt up. Live on. The client was the New Zealand Transport Agency and, after checking in our Online Archive, I found another campaign they did 11 years ago, featured in Vol. 3-2008, which is now considered a classic. And, five years earlier, in Vol. 3-2003, there was another seat belt campaign by the same agency that also credits Jono Rotman, the photographer who worked on this latest execution.
Here they are:
Year: 2008. Client: NZ Land Transport and Police. Agency: Clemenger BBDO, Wellington. AD: Paul Young, Mark Harricks, Paul Nagy, Geoff Francis, Brigid Alkema. CW: Young, Mark Harricks, Paul Nagy, Brigid Alkema. Photographer. Mat Blamires. Year: 2003 Agency. Clemenger BBDO, Wellington. AD: Scott Henderson. CW: Angus Hennah. Photographer. Jono Rotman.
Apart from our next cover image being quite a striking one, I believe that this whole campaign is going to make quite a splash at Cannes this year, one that is bound to result in a lot of metal, perhaps even more...
Here some information about this year's campaign the agency gave us:
"Liam woke up from a coma the day before his daughter was born. If he hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt, he wouldn’t have woken up at all. He’s one of ten young Kiwi lads featured in the Belted Survivor series: a collection of portraits of real crash survivors, that turns the distinctive wounds left behind by seatbelts into badges of honor.
Around 90 people die on New Zealand roads every year because they’re not wearing their seatbelt. Young males make up the majority of these fatalities. To this tough, no-bullshit audience, seatbelts are an unnecessary accessory. Truth is, a seatbelt can be the difference between ending up injured, or ending up dead. Protection is at arm’s reach. NZ Transport Agency needed to prove a seatbelt is a tool worth using. In partnership with Vice, a national call-out gathered hundreds of real stories from people who survived crashes thanks to their seatbelt. Ten were chosen. Using their post-crash pics, their real-life injuries were re-created by PROFX, fresh from the likes of Thor: Ragnarok and The Hobbit trilogy."
The survivors were photographed in their own homes around the country, so they could be in a familiar environment and surrounded by family and friends while reliving their past experiences.
Rachel Prince, NZ Transport Agency Principal Advisor Advertising: “We’re selling an undesirable product to these guys. Research told us they think seatbelt messages are for kids, for the elderly, for everyone else. We worked with them to make the undesirable something they wanted to buy."
So much for the client's side. And here's our next cover: