Orange SMS

7 April, 2009

by Sonia

Text messaging while driving prevents you from seeing what really matters.

I’m a chronic texter-driver and it’s honestly ONLY by the grace of God that I’m not dead and I haven’t killed anyone while killing myself. Hmm… resolution. I will no longer text and drive.

I like this advertisement. Because that’s exactly what it feels like when one is driving and texting at the same time, and it’s a horrible feeling. Because if you should happen to accidentally, almost (hopefully and not completely) kill someone you realise what a moron you’re being. Not only are you endangering your own life, you’re also endangering the lives of the people in the car with you, in the cars near you and on the streets around you. And all for a text message that’s probably not even going to be remembered fifteen minutes later.

I also like the way that the words in the illustration are written in ‘txt language‘ (one that I don’t always understand) and the varying sizes of the words indicate the equally varying importance of text messages- in terms of urgency of reply. I think it’s a great ad that gets an important message across.

Relatedly, I completely failed in my resolution this weekend when I was trying to drive to a location 1.5 hours away from my place of dwelling. I got lost and the first thing I did was turn to my phone and began texting people, because it’s slightly less worse than actually calling someone while driving. As a result I missed several turn-offs and ended up driving shamefully home without reaching my destination. It was sad, and hopefully lesson learned!

Advertising Agency: Shalmor Avnon Amichay/ Y&R Tel-Aviv, Israel
Chief Creative Director: Gideon Amichay
Creative Director: Tzur Golan
Head of creative team: Yariv Twig
Art Director: Shirley Bachar
Copywriter: Sharon Refael
Published: December 2008