Zoom-in Online

A few months back, probably around the heights of the summer, an ad campaign for a car insurance company aired—to the joys of myself and to the horrors of my friends and family.

The campaign revolved around the impossible- people actually aware that they were about to be in an accident, and then choosing to talk about it with the viewer in the most clinical cadence imaginable. "Today I will be in an accident. Someone will run a red light and I will be struck at 35mph..." I loved how powerful the messages were, that they communicated the importance of protection in a tangible way, that their "prophets" were ordinary people, and of course the big idea—they didn't show accidents. It was all implied in a rather ominous tone. I loved them, but my peers thought they were scary.

Fast-forward to now. Canada has used the EXACT same premise to launch an anti-accident campaign PSA, except they completely obliterated the previous campaign by actually showing the accidents in all of their horrifying reality. HORRIFYING REALITY. Dare to watch? Check it out below:

These commercials are insane. The violence is so sudden and extreme in both cases that it's almost funny—until it's not. The director has managed to go from Farrelly Brothers to Wes Craven in 0.6 seconds. I'm assuming the approach is pure scare tactics—shock the hell out of people into being more aware of work-related accidents. (If this is a byproduct of socialized medicine, suddenly Michael Moore's movie is less appealing.)

The website really threw me. While the commercial campaign seemed to be about pure reality, the website takes the approach of humor and cartoons to get the message across. A bloody Thing from the Addam's Family makes a guest appearance. Then the visitor is invited to witness the sad life of a handless man. I wonder why the designers didn't coordinate a consistent message across the campaign—trying to appeal to different demographics perhaps?

Regardless, this whole campaign brings up a fascinating issue in graphic design: viewer participation. When a viewer participates in your design, when they are forced to interact with it, wrestle with it, and discover the idea, the result is extremely powerful. They remember it much more, because they "solved" it. Scott Santoro of Worksight states it rather eloquently:

One great desire in graphic design is for the audience to participate in the communication. This is realized in a variety of ways. The formal structure or grid is perceived, the concept is grasped, the sentence is completed, the feeling understood. We want the reader to notice our intention. Yet it’s mystery that gives a piece life. The subjective part of the presentation gets the reader to linger. This deliberate ambiguity allows the piece to sit on a table or be pinned to a wall for more than a day. It keeps a window of interpretation inspiringly open because the subtle metaphors and intriguing elements keep asking to be uncovered and re-examined.

Unfortunately, this PSA campaign courtesy of our Northern Neighbors has blatantly denied any user participation. We're left to be victims of the campaign. We have two options- watch the pain, or change the channel. I don't have to tell you what I'm choosing.