“I sent one stupid, meaningless text – ‘LOL’ – and killed a man.”
When AT&T launched their campaign against texting while driving in March, 2010, they decided that the most important demographic to focus upon were teens and college students. The mixture of inexperience and irresponsibility in the demographic combined with the potential to break a habit before it got started made the most sense.
Since then, very little has been done that was extraordinary enough to be more than a gesture of “we’re doing good” that could be used in public relations campaigns. That changed today with the release of a dramatic short documentary on the topic.
“In March 2010, AT&T launched a campaign to educate consumers about the dangers of texting while driving. The brave individuals in this documentary shared their stories with us because of how deeply they feel about the dangers of texting and driving.”
Watch the video and let us know what you think.
Rhonda
I first saw this video on facebook and took the time to watch it in it's entirety. I'm not sure that teens will watch the whole thing. As with unprotected sex and drinking while driving, the mentality is "It would never happen to me." To reach the masses, a shorter version should be shown during popular teen shows like The Simpsons, The Office, and on channels like VH1.
essielisa
powerful……….though in today’s world, ironically, possibly too long for a teen to look at.
Kenn Gorman
I teach high school technology classes in Southern California, in an area where everyone has a cell phone. I just decided to add this video to my curriculum, and focus on the fact that each of the text messages was short and common. Thank you to all who created this video – it might be the most important video a student will see next semester.
John Nielsen
It is a very dramatic video. But that’s probably what it takes to catch people’s attention.
I experience drivers who send text or talk on handheld cell phone every day. It’s terrible.
If this type of video is what it takes to wake up people to endforce driving security, its just fine by me.
Jake
this message cannot be pushed enough. while I don’t support technologies that block text while in cars, I do believe people need to be educated as much as possible about the dangers of texting and driving. I’m usually the passenger when my wife and I take road trips (she prefers to drive), and I watch other drivers on the road, and am constantly amazed by how long people will take their eyes off the road to text, or whatever it is that they do with their phones.