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A hard-hitting New Zealand road safety advertisement has gone viral with millions of Internet hits from around the world and requests from other governments to use the ad, the New Zealand government said Thursday.
Associate Transport Minister Michael Woodhouse said the response to the "Mistakes" ad commissioned by the New Zealand Transport Agency had been unprecedented.
The clip had been viewed more than 2 million times on Youtube since it was first launched four days ago, and the message was resonating both in New Zealand and around the world.
"It's a terrific sign of success that this message has gone viral and got people talking about road safety around the world. We have had requests to use the advert from as far afield as Brazil and Poland, and had questions and positive feedback from the U.S., Canada, Australia, the UK and Sweden," Woodhouse said in a statement.
The ad shows two motorists stopping to consider the consequences of their driving as one car hurtles at high speed towards the other.
"Mistakes, is a powerful new ad that helps drivers understand that no matter how careful they are, other people will always make mistakes, and if we slow down fewer people will pay for mistakes with their lives," Woodhouse said.
"Educational campaigns that invoke a strong emotional response can be far more effective in changing behavior than simply telling people to obey the rules," he said.
The ad was created to prompt motorists to think about the consequences of their speed as part of a long-running campaign to curb the huge number of road deaths and injuries in the country of 4.4 million.
The country recorded 254 road deaths last year, the lowest since 1950.
