Five years ago, researchers at the University of Toronto published Unsafe Driving in North American Automobile Commercials, (available online by google-ing the title), a systematic evaluation of the prevalence of aggressive driving in automobile commercials.  Their objective was to investigate the concerns raised by consumer and safety associations that automobile commercials were portraying and ultimately promoting this type of driving behaviour.

 

The study involved researchers watching 250 English language commercials for cars and trucks running in either the United States or Canada during January or July between 1998 and 2002 on the major networks.  (January and July were chosen to determine if there were any seasonal differences in either the portrayal of safety features or aggressive driving.)  All the ads were at least 30 seconds long.  Three separate viewers rated the ads for the presence and type of unsafe activity, as well as safety promotion and found the following:

 

·         45% (113 commercials) contained an unsafe driving sequence as determined by at least two of the three viewers.

·         25% (63 commercials) contained an unsafe driving sequence as determined by all three of the viewers.

·         85% of the unsafe driving sequences involved aggressive driving.

·         56% of the unsafe driving sequences involved speed violations.

·         12% (30 commercials) included some safety promotion. 

·         81% of the identified drivers —141 commercials identified the driver—were male.

 

The summary conclusion:  “Unsafe driving is prevalent in North American automobile commercials.  Given the extent to which MVCs [motor vehicles crashes] are a public health and economic concern, this finding seems in conflict with responsible advertising.  The degree to which the portrayal of driving in automobile commercials affects consumer-driving behaviour should be an area of further investigation.”

 

Media reports coincident with the release of the study included interviews with research psychologist Dr. John Vavrick quoted as saying, "The message people take away from that, number one, is its okay to drive that way. Not only that, but it's good to aspire to that kind of driving."

 

Simon Fraser University's Lindsay Meredith was quoted as saying, "TV is what we call a holistic medium. It gives us a nice big fat image, an emotional response.  Regrettably, some people may take that to the street and then we get catastrophic results."