It Can Wait We have all seen it on the road before, drivers looking down at their phones rather than paying attention to the road. Texting drivers take their eyes off the road an average of just 5 seconds. It is a costly 5 seconds. Texting while driving makes it 23 times more likely you will be in a crash. Each day, distracted driving causes an estimated nine deaths and more than 1,000 injuries in the United States, most prominently among young, inexperienced drivers. Estimates suggest that at least 30% of drivers admit to texting while driving, though some surveys have put that number as high as 70%, especially for younger drivers. In response, corporations and nonprofit organizations, including government agencies, have launched marketing efforts aimed at reducing this behavior. It Can Wait is a campaign first created in 2010 to increase awareness about the risks of texting and driving. An initiative headed by AT&T, It Can Wait is an ongoing marketing campaign that combines multiple media tools to get drivers to stop texting and driving. The campaign uses traditional media, but its major efforts include online ads, social media, and the Itcanwait website (https://www.itcanwait.com/). Try to see if you can recognize the ItCanWait logo in Figure 75. Ads such as Close to Home and "No Post is Worth a Life" as well as longer videos such as "The Unseen" try to go beyond the typical public service announcement by showing mini-stories involving distracted driving. The intent is to get viewers to experience what it might be like to experience the consequences of texting and driving. The images of witnessing a crash, being injured, or injuring someone else while driving distracted are intended to get people to think about what could happen if they text and drive. IT CAN WAIT Courtesy of AT&T Intellectual Property. Used with permission. FIGURE 7.5 The It Can Wait Campaign Logo Social media and especially the website complement the videos and advertising. The It Can Wait campaign goes further by encouraging participation and connections. On the website, people are encouraged to participate via the simulator, which simulates texting while driving in different situations. Moreover, people are encouraged to make a pledge to not text and drive. Pledgers post pictures of themselves on the site with the words It Can Wait written on their hands. This participation connects customers (drivers concerned about safety) to the product, in this case, the anti-texting and driving movement. These participation activities also provide a sense of connection with others. Your picture becomes part of the collage of others who have pledged to not text and drive, in effect making each person part of a larger brand community. Though the campaign seems to have many positive marketing elements, the numbers clearly suggest that texting and driving is increasing. So, the campaign is still ongoing. Most states have laws against texting and driving, and enforcement has been increasing as well. It Can Wait has added this component to its marketing strategy. Recently, AT&T teamed with the Houston police department to put messages on their police cruisers reminding drivers about the legal dangers of texting and driving. (See Figure 7.6). The hope is that this will boost the incentive to not text while driving for fear of legal punishment. Only time will tell if this approach will have a bigger impact than previous attempts. If you ask anyone, they will tell you that distracted driving is dangerous and that it makes sense to try to reduce the injuries and deaths caused by distracted driving. It Can Wait has been an important part of the attempt to try to reduce texting and driving, and yet, it is not clear how effective efforts such as It Can Wait will be in the long run. Proponents of programs such as these say that if it saves one life, it was worth it. Critics say that too much money is being wasted without much progress in actually decreasing the behavior. What do you think should be done? Questions 1. Why do you think people text and drive? 2. Do you think it is possible to get people to stop texting and driving through marketing campaigns? 3. Have you seen any marketing trying to get people to stop texting and driving? Was it effective? Why or why not? 4. What do you think would be a message that would work to get someone like you to stop texting and driving? 5. What recommendations would you make to improve the effectiveness of the It Can Wait campaign? 6. It has been proposed to have the phone producers include some type of technology block that would disarm the texting capabilities of the phone while the phone was in motion. Would this approach work? Why or why not