A video created by FCB Cape Town for the Western Cape Government as part of its #ItCanWait campaign has gone viral and is attracting comments and shares from around the world.
A collection of slapstick clips of people walking into objects, falling down stairs and tripping over obstacles while focusing on their phones instead of where they are going, the video is at first glance simply harmless entertainment.
But, within a few seconds, the mood turns with a shot of a young lady attempting to text while driving her car. Within the blink of an eye, she crashes the car and is shown being thrown about by its momentum as it rolls and flips.
The message is clear: “You can’t even text and walk. So why do you text and drive?”
Created by FCB Cape Town’s Executive Creative Officer Mike Barnwell, Art Director Dylan Davies and Copywriter Alistair Morgan with additional footage from Jason Fielkov of Egg Films, the video has received a staggering number of views since being uploaded on July 14. The upload to the Mail Online site has been viewed 23 000 000 times. On Gorilla Creation’s Facebook page it’s been viewed 1 500 000 times. On a Chinese Facebook site (Teng Tsen Khoo) it’s been viewed 1 500 000 times. On the FCB Cape Town YouTube site it’s been viewed 385 000 times and on the WCG site it’s been viewed 415 000 times. A Western Cape Government spokesman said: “As the National Safety Council points out, brain activity in the areas that process moving images decreases by over 33% when we are working our phones. “This means that we effectively become partially blind when we use our cell-phone while driving, which leads to collisions, which can result in deaths and serious injuries. There is no call, and certainly no text message, so important that it is worth a human life: it can wait.”
