Tired Faces (pedestrian safety campaign)

The West Midlands Road Safety Partnership launched this campaign in a bid to reduce the number of pedestrian casualties in the region.

The bus back adverts, which feature faces symbolically blemished by a tyre tread, are designed to encourage drivers to look out for pedestrians. The campaign had been previously used in the USA and was provided free of charge to the West Midlands Road Safety Partnership.

Pedestrian casualties are over represented in the West Midlands region – 18% of casualties are pedestrians, against 13% across Great Britain as a whole.

Before developing a new campaign, the partnership decided to look around the UK and further afield to see what was already in use.

They found the ‘tired faces’ campaign which was being used in the USA, made contact with the necessary departments, and asked if they could use the resources.

The adverts were created in 2013 by Sherry Matthews Advocacy Marketing for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ Street Smart campaign.

The research-based adverts were created to capture attention and illustrate the weakness of the human body in comparison to vehicles on the road.