Brake and Autoglass team up on road safety TV campaign

Brake, the road safety charity, is partnering with Autoglass to launch a new national campaign promoting road safety. The free Bosch wipers initiative urges drivers to consider the road safety implications of poor visibility and raises awareness of the essential role windscreen wipers play in allowing drivers to maintain good visibility.

The joint activity follows the news that the Department for Transport’s road safety publicity budget has been slashed from £19m in 2008/09 to £3.9m in 2011/12. As a result, the Government announced it would no longer invest in children’s road safety TV advertising.

The change in the Government’s spending priorities means there is an increased need for corporate organisations to work in partnership with charities to raise public awareness of life saving issues. This latest activity aims to reduce the 40 road deaths, and 600 serious injuries a year that are linked to poor visibility by highlighting the easy steps drivers can take to ensure a clean and safe windscreen, such as the regular checking of windscreens and wipers.

Autoglass and Brake began working together in 2010. The new windscreen wipers initiative follows research released by Brake in August 2012 showing that a huge proportion of drivers are failing to conduct potentially life-saving vehicle checks. Nearly four in ten (39 per cent) set off on long journeys without checking their tyres are in a safe condition with the right pressure, more than one in four (26 per cent) don’t bother to check oil and water and the same number (26 per cent) don’t ensure washers and wipers are working. The consequences of this are severe – in 2010 (latest data available), 39 people were killed and another 2,178 were injured, some seriously, because of crashes where vehicle defects were a factor.

The creative will also see a return to screen of technician Gavin, the famous first face of the Autoglass Heroes advertising campaign. The integrated activity will appear across TV, radio, online and social channels, featuring the hashtag #getfreewipers. The TV ad can be viewed at www.youtube.com/autoglass.