COI - Home Office - Smoke Alarms: Every Home Should Have One

Objective: to encourage the installation of smoke alarms. Needed to create the market, address the issue of the elderly (vulnerable) and provide after sales maintenance information. After various TV activity penetration rose from 10% (March 1988) to 31% (March 1989) and following additional activity there was a sharp increase in penetration, ad recall and message communication, and sales, especially among aged 65+. High awareness reached by 1994. Increased awareness of maintenance measures and improved claimed behaviour regarding maintenance. Fire statistics show that the number of fires discovered by smoke alarms tripled 1988-92, that fires in homes with alarms were discovered much faster, and that the death rate from fire casualties in those homes was a third of that in homes without alarms.