“Hello dear. Yes I know, I know, I…” driving is a serious matter in all parts of the world, and this advertisement shows just that. The advertisement “Don’t talk while he drives” comes from the Bangalore traffic police in India, emphasizing in an extreme point of view that cell phone usage is a problem while driving. It is not only emphasizing that it is a problem, but more so that it causes death. Although this is an advertisement for India, anyone anywhere in the world can understand the seriousness of death behind the issue of driving because it occurs so often. The prominent theme behind this print campaign is that the driver is not the only person responsible for car accidents; it involves the other person on the other end of the phone.
The color scheme goes hand-in-hand with this advertisement. The bland and faded colors of the whole ad accentuate the dark, exact color of blood that
is spewing out of the phone. When looking at this image, the eye is automatically drawn to the red not only because it is coming from a phone, but also because it is splattering all over the woman’s face causing it to be the center of attention. This pop of color is also due to the absence of brightness to add more of an effect to the cause of car accidents. The color scheme enhances the part of the image that stands out the most, which is the blood that is coming from the earpiece of the phone.
The image of the blood is placed strategically close to the center because it is demonstrating death due to accidents. It is also near the woman’s face because her expression, that shows “shock, terror and sorrow all captured in a single reflex” (Haunting 1), is also a main image due to the reaction of her losing someone close to her. The rest of the image is blurred, almost as though, just like in a car accident, when the person feels like they are the only thing moving while everything else is standing still. This layout is used brilliantly because it depicts both sides of the accident right at the moment it happens. It captures that instant shock of death and that instant reaction of discovering it.
When looking at the image, the eye is automatically drawn to the blood because it has the boldest coloring, when the slogan is also in the same color, just smaller. The slogan “don’t talk while he drives” is an outdoor advertising campaign that “uses disturbing photography to shock people out of talking to their friends and families on the phone while they drive” (Duncan 1) in order to persuade individuals to drive safely. An article written by Erica Ogg suggests that talking on your phone is just as dangerous as driving intoxicated. Psychologists from the University of Utah put subjects to the test and discovered that “drivers talking on cell phones, either handheld or hands-free, are more likely to crash because they are distracted by conversation,” (Ogg 1) a conversation done by someone else. This study demonstrates seriousness distractive driving. Although the text is infinitely smaller than the rest of the advertisement, the projecting blood and the emotion say it all.
The Mudra Group for the Bangalore police department developed this shocking advertisement because of their monstrous population. The number of vehicles on the road has “jumped from 29496 in 2006 to 90,332 in 2020” while 50% tend to be those aged 16-20, which is proving to be fatal (Swamy 1). The police department goes into depth about the dangers of distractive driving, but they emphasize that, “as bikers bend their neck while talking on the phone, they lose sight of the road ahead and hit the footpath. Most hit-and-run cases registered at night are involving such riders” (Swamy 1). Drivers are being careless and unaware of the road if they are paying more attention to a phone call than their own safety. Although the target audience is for the people of Bangalore, India, it is targeting those who drive cars and talk on the phone, which can be anyone anywhere.
“Don’t talk while he drives” is a running outdoor advertisement meant to persuade. Due to the rising number of vehicles in Bangalore the police made a decision of self-awareness and public interest to help save the lives of people that talk and text on the phone. The life files website allows online communication to discuss the views of this campaign, while to many agreed that this is a major issue, there were a selective few who seemed confused by it. One individual was under the impression that this campaign was just about “how a woman should not chat on the phone while her man drives” (The Life 1) when she had not researched the ad and just made a snap judgment. Later she looked up the meaning and apologized for her “dumbfounded” remark. While altho