Living Gem

Hazardous Advertisements

Friday, April 29, 2005

I don't know about you guys, but I get distracted by my own radio while driving. In the past, there used to be some telco advert that had a Nokia monotonic, Standard Message Alert tone (which goes "beep beep, beep beep") in it. On a coupla occasions, I was driving when this ad came on air and guess what, I thought it was my phone that rang. It doesn't matter what I did next, my point is that I got distracted.

Recently, there's this ad that has honking sounds somewhere in it (not sure if it's an advert, could be some community service message). And if I may also add: It sounds really real. I've heard it on air a few times, and each time I always got punk'd (I only listen to radio in car; rarely turn on my radio at home). What I mean is that, actually there wasn't any car that honked - it came from the radio. Today, for the first time, that particular ad really got to my nerve.

I was changing lanes - to the right. Traffic was heavy, a bumper-to-bumper crawl. Then this particular 'frantic-sounding' honking noise was heard, while I was still in between the two lanes. I thought some car at the back was honking me (hey, you'd never know the reason - it could be any sign, like trying to tell you that you're about to hit something, or someone). I reacted by slowing down, checked my right-side mirror (all done within a span of probably one second). The next thing I knew was I got punk'd by my own radio (the subsequent dialogue lines cut in).

Concentration and focus while driving, I believe, are essential to prevent accidents. Radio adverts like these are potentially hazardous. Yes, they're attention-grabbers (successful marketing, as the advert guys say) - but hazardous. Another reason why I want an iPod with integration kit for my car (iPod in-vehicle use).

Posted by narrowband at 10:52 PM

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