To change behaviors, nothing has more impact than the experience of danger – unfortunately.

We thought: Why does always an accident have to happen first to make people realize the danger? How can we create huge mass media impact – without a single actual crash impact?

The creative idea of this campaign was born, to make people experience the fear of getting hit by a car and transform this individuals’ experience into a raise awareness mass campaign targeting the largest number of people.

Impact – without an impact.

Starting on March 22nd, the agency held an unprecedented field operation in Paris to raise awareness about the dangers of being a careless pedestrian. A specially designed interactive digital billboard was consecutively displayed near busy pedestrian crossings all over the Paris area. Equipped with a motion detector, speaker, and camera, the smart billboard made the sound of squealing tires whenever a pedestrian attempted to cross the road while the “red man” (no crossing sign) was on. The frightened faces of the disobedient pedestrians were projected directly onto the billboard and shown alongside the caption: “Don’t risk looking death in the face. Check the lights and cross safely”. QR Codes on the billboard led the pedestrians to video messages of real crash survivors. They could then pledge not to cross on red light anymore and contribute their picture to the campaign.

More than an amazing number of views of the video and a high engagement level, this "virtual crash billboard" video really started the conversation. In a few days, the topic of “pedestrian and drivers co-existence” became a N°1 topic in main French news websites, TV channels, and social networks. Then, the campaign started its “organic” world tour. The figures exploded and the "virtual crash billboard" largely spread worldwide. More than 15 TV shows, 100 global news digital platforms and an incalculable number of posts on social networks were linked to the campaign and the video has been subtitled in very many languages. In only two weeks after the campaign was launched, we could already count 6 million organic views, 250.000 interactions and 18 million total impressions. Only two months later, the 30th May 2017, as far as we know, we count: - 50 MILLION ORGANIC VIEWS - 1,2 MILLION INTERACTIONS

The Virtual Crash Billboard is a campaign conceived for the Parisian Road Safety Authority which involves the public in a direct and immediate way. This one begins with a stunt: taken in an obvious offense of carelessness, pedestrians are going to experiment the danger of their behavior. Immediately, they are also going to become the actors of the advertising campaign which targets them directly. With just a billboard, we started a national conversation about crossing on red light.

In terms of road safety, French people are particularly disobedient towards safety rules. This is true for drivers, and for pedestrians too.

Rather than repeating the rules again, we decided to make people experience the unique moment when one faces an imminent danger. We decided to create the conditions of this special moment, to film it and make from the images an on-line awareness-raising tool: "the virtual crash billboard" video.

We also decided to use the photos of the frightened faces of these people as a poster created under real-life conditions. First, the posters would be put in front of the disobedient pedestrians to make them realize how foolishly they had acted. Secondly, the posters will be used as part of the forthcoming "Quinzaine Régionale des Usagers Vulnérables" campaign (train station billboards, Facebook campaign, etc.)

All this material was also widely spread online through websites, social networks, e.newsletters...

In France, and particularly in Paris and its suburbs, pedestrians are careless when crossing the road. In the past year, ± 4500 persons were injured or killed consequently to an imprudent behavior. The Parisian Road Safety Authority wanted to raise awareness about the danger of being a careless pedestrian, in order to make this terrible figure decrease.