Work Safe Alberta brings the pain
Originally printed in Strategy Magazine (December 2008) by Jonathan Paul
Nothing screams on-the-job safety awareness like a skin-peeling chemical burn. That’s one of the scenarios portrayed in a series of visceral viral executions for Work Safe Alberta (Alberta Employment and Immigration) running across the province into December that aim to make young people savvy about job safety.
The shocking vids are part of a social media campaign with the slogan “Some days are bloodier than others,” created by Edmonton-based Red The Agency, targeting teens aged 15 to 19 about to enter the workforce.
Though it’s similar to a Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) campaign launched in Ontario last year, Work Safe Alberta’s effort was actually in development in 2007 and meant to launch last September.
“All of our learning had come directly from the discussions and testing we did with members of the target audience,” explains Randy Cronin, partner/director of strategy and research at Red The Agency.
Red developed six videos now on YouTube (youtube.com/user/BloodyLuckyAlberta). They are hard to watch, because of the ghastly nature of the workers’ encounters with a forklift at a lumber yard, a shaky ladder at a shoe store, a meat slicer at a deli, a deep fryer at a café and a knife at a restaurant…just use your imagination.
“We’re dealing with an audience that’s inundated with advertising and information,” says Cronin. “Ultimately it comes down to disturbing them to break through their cynicism about workplace safety.”
Cinema ads, interior transit, transit shelters, restobar/workplace posters and web banner ads work with the videos to drive traffic to bloodylucky.ca, which has the look of a kitschy theatre with a Muzak-esque soundtrack. “There’s an undercurrent of humour that lulls the viewer into expecting something different, and that contributes to the build-up to the actual seriousness of the scenario,” says Cronin.
Filed under: Campaigns, In The News