Volkswagen Wants You To Keep Your Eyes On The Road — Or Else

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHixeIr_6BM

Public service announcements run the gamut from gory to emotional, all with the intended effect of appealing to people’s better judgment. Recently, I watched Volkswagen’s “Eyes on the Road” PSA that played at a movie theater in Hong Kong. It’s one of the most shocking PSAs I’ve ever seen. The PSA interacts with audience, putting them in the front seat of a real life scenario to make a clear point. It’s an extremely clever use of point-of-view that shocks viewers.

As movie goers settle into their seat with food and drinks in hand, footage of someone driving a car appears on screen through first person point of view. Using a location-based broadcaster, a mass text message is sent to everyone in the theater. As soon as the audience turns their focus away from the screen and towards their buzzing phone, the car crashes. Two powerful sentences fade into view: “Mobile use is now the leading cause of death behind the wheel. A reminder to keep your eyes on the road!”

Instead of being the passive viewer of another person texting and crashing, the audience was the cause of the accident. Implicating the audience is an unconventional, interactive and effective move on Volkswagen’s part.