Ads are made with a purpose, a purpose of sending a message to the people whether it’s about selling their product or raising awareness about a problem. This ad was created by Ekburg.ru, Ekburg.ru is a website in Russia and is based in the city of Ekaterinburg. The ad is about being distracted while driving, where the drivers do not focus on the road ahead of them. The reason of creating it is because of the increasing number of car accidents. In this age, people are easily distracted by their cell phones while driving. The message of the image is clear and simple, but there are some deeper meanings behind the image.
In the image a man and woman are distracted while driving down the road. The man is on his phone while the woman is holding a map and talking with the man. They have one child in the backseat. Another child (not theirs) is shown on the windshield; presumably having been hit by the man driving the car. A key point of the ad is the tagline sprawled across the bottom. The ad shows two different perspectives of how children can be harmed in accidents by showing the child in the rearview mirror and the one on the windshield. The ad infers that the child on the windshield perhaps has just gotten out of school and was crossing the street. The man was not paying attention because he is distracted so he hits the child.
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The coloring of the image is subtle so as not to overshadow the meaning of the message. However, the background is too bright and blurry, which means that the driver is not looking at the road. The positioning of the child is in the middle so he can be the focus of the ad since he is the victim, but he might not be the only victim. The deeper message in the ad is that you might not only hurt other people, you might also hurt your loved ones, and it is shown in the eyes of the child in the backseat. You might also kill your baby, and that is impactful to the people who will recognize the meaning of the ad.
Although the ad is intended to draw attention to distracted driving, at first glance it appears to have a satirical or rhetorical feel to it. The way the face of the child in the backseat so properly aligns with the boy being hit. The facial expression of the child in the backseat seems comical and twisted until it is realized that there are two children involved and not just the one on the windshield. Perhaps the creators of the ad wanted to give the public a sense of doing a double take in the way the two children are positioned in the ad. In other words, this is a tongue-in-cheek subtle reminder that distracted driving results in too little, too late. Children often run out in front of cars without looking twice. Drivers are only likely to do double takes when they are paying attention to the road.
The text on the top right says “Think of both sides” with having “both sides” in an orange color and “think of” is in gray. The reason why “both sides” is in orange because it has high visibility which makes it the focus so the people can understand it’s meaning, and also dark orange means deceit and distrust, which shows that you cannot trust reckless drivers.
The ad uses pathos in order to evoke a strong emotional response in people. The first emotion is fear. People might fear losing a loved person. Distracted driving not only places drivers and those in the car, but also anyone who is in the path of the car. Another emotion is regret, regretting killing an innocent soul or your family because of your reckless driving. The third emotion is shame. People might feel ashamed after seeing the ad by realizing that they are guilty of driving recklessly in the past. The way that the child had his hand up trying to stop the car and yelling makes him look helpless. Interestingly enough, the baby in the backseat is the only one who is looking and cannot do anything about it which puts the parents in huge fault. Putting these two innocent children in danger because of these distracted adults who are supposed to be careful makes the message of the ad more effective.
Logos was used in the image with the text of “The number of car accidents involving children increases during school holidays. Please be extremely careful!” this is a logical statement and it can educate the people about it. The image itself doesn’t need a text because the message is obvious and clear, but the text might help to make the people think deeply about it.
The image doesn’t need credibility, it was created from a website of a Russian city Ekaterinburg but it went viral and it is being used in many websites internationally to spread the message of distracted driving, which shows how important and meaningful this ad is.
The audience for this ad is any person who drives, even the careful ones because everybody gets distracted sometimes no matter how careful you are. The ad also focuses on young adults since they are the most reckless drivers and the most distracted, but the most important audience of the ad is the parents, because the ad is focused on parents being distracted on things other than the road, especially during school holidays which involves many children trying to cross the road at that time.
The campaign of the ad is successful since it became popular because of its effectiveness. It appealed logically and emotionally to the audience in a smart way in the hopes of reducing car accidents which include children, and make people aware of this huge issue by making the people think about their loved ones, and think about the innocent people that might be hurt or killed because of them.
