New Oz road safety campaign hits speeding youngsters below the belt

Australian road safety campaigners have decided to approach the problem of young speedsters in a rather unique fashion, as a new TV campaign has tried to tackle the problem by hitting them right below the belt by showing young women wiggling their little fingers at fast riders.

London, June 26 : Australian road safety campaigners have decided to approach the problem of young speedsters in a rather unique fashion, as a new TV campaign has tried to tackle the problem by hitting them right below the belt by showing young women wiggling their little fingers at fast riders.

The New South Wales Roads and Traffic Authority decided to go for the derogatory gesture which traditionally means a small penis, because they thought it would be more effective than showing gory mishaps.

Apparently, there seems to be apathy towards conventional toad safety campaigns that carry images of blood curdling accidents due to increased watching of violent films and excessive video gaming among youngsters.

"To me the gesture says 'speeding - no one thinks big of you. It will cause people who are speeding to think twice about the image they are creating," Timesonline quoted the authority's spokesman, John Whelan, as saying.

" Television advertisements that warned against speeding by showing graphic images of car crashes and injuries were no longer effective for young people who frequently viewed worse images on computer games or in horror films," he added.

Whelan added that the ad isn't 'light-hearted', but has an element of 'darkish humour' in it, and that combing a widely used gesture and a message can be effective.

"I wouldn't say it's more light hearted - there's element of I suppose darkish humour to what we're doing in this advertisement," he said.

"This gesture to which we're referring is part of everyday language and part of our culture. So to align that message to our anti-speeding message, I think is going to have an impact," he added.

The campaign that will be seen on television, cinema commercials and bus stop placards will also have a 15 second viral internet ad that will offer speedsters an "xtra xtra small" condom'.

The 850 million pounds campaign has been triggered by numerous road accidents involving young and inexperienced male riders, who drive on their restricted, provisional driving licences, in Sydney,

Harold Scruby, the head of the road safety lobby group, the Pedestrian Council of Australia, said that the unique way to target youngsters is laudable and witty.

ANI