The speed limit in New York City is 30mph, and for good reason. A pedestrian hit at 30mph has an 80% chance of survival, while someone hit at 40mph has a 70% chance of dying. The City asked for our help getting this message out. Our strategy was to create an execution that could communicate directly to drivers on the road, and that would also drive PR and attract coverage from New York City print, online and broadcast media outlets. Our solution: the 'skeleton sign', a radar-enabled road sign that flashed an ominous graphic and a message to 'Slow Down' to drivers who sped past at more than 30mph.The sign was announced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a major press conference, eliciting coverage from nearly every major New York City press outlet, including The New York Times, The Daily News, NY One television and multiple community and transportation blogs. It also received national coverage on Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough, CNN online, Time Magazine’s Newsfeed, as well as numerous mentions on heavily trafficked sites such as Fast Company Design and Laughing Squid.Additionally, all coverage featured images of the sign, a unique, compelling and simple visual that helped the press contextualize the city’s safety campaign to the public. As Mayor Bloomberg said himself, when asked what he thought about the skeleton sign in his press conference, “If it saves 1 life, it’s one of the more brilliant ideas I’ve ever heard”.


The sign was announced at a major press conference by the Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. The sign itself appeared in multiple locations around the City throughout the summer of 2011.

Our approach resulted in 22 online media publications with a total of 59,616,222 unique visitors, 4 major broadcast news stations with a total of 9.5m viewers, collectively resulting in 69m impressions.