Need for the campaign
The RACV attends an average of four calls outs a day from people who have accidently locked their child in the car. Whilst campaigns have been run to urge parents not to leave their children in the car when going into a shop or other venues, this campaign aimed to help prevent cases where the child is accidently locked in the vehicle.
Aims/Objectives
To raise awareness of the issue of accidently locking children in cars and promote four tips:
- wind windows down in case the car automatically locks
- never let children play with keys as they can accidentally lock the car
- avoid distraction when loading and unloading the car
- have an easy way to hold on to your keys, such as using RACV’s free lanyard, to avoid an accidental lockout.
Campaign approach
The campaign created a video that showed how quickly a car can heat up to more than 70 degrees Celsius on a hot day and interviewed a mum who had accidently locked her child in a car. The video was promoted on social media.
The campaign created a video that showed how quickly a car can heat up to more than 70 degrees Celsius on a hot day and interviewed a mum who had accidently locked her child in a car. The video was promoted on social media.
Facebook posts were also developed and the RACV distributed lanyards, with the motto Check Keys, Check Kids, to parents to make it easier for them to hold onto their keys.
Results
The campaign was launched in December 2014 to coincide with the hot weather. More than 24,000 lanyards have been distributed through childcare centres and the social media posts reached over 84,000 people.
Resources
The video
Facebook posts
Lanyard (available free of charge from RACV shops or by emailing publicpolicyadmin@racv.com.au)
Contact
Melinda Spiteri, Manager, Road User Behaviour
Melinda_Spiteri@racv.com.au
Melinda_Spiteri@racv.com.au