Department of Environment, Northern Ireland - Road Safety: The longer term effects of seatbelts advertising2

This paper shows how psychological techniques were used to shock Ireland into wearing seatbelts. Seatbelt wearing rates in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were lower than people in Great Britain. The challenge was to increase seatbelt compliance and thereby reduce road carnage and its resulting human tragedy and economic cost to the taxpayer. The strategy combined findings from research, data and psychology to dramatise the consequences of being unbelted in a car through TV ads. The campaigns reduced the number of deaths and serious injuries without seatbelts by 29 per cent in Northern Ireland, and 46 per cent in Republic of Ireland, and generated payback of £15 for every £1 spent