Promoting Awareness — Getting a Message to Stick

Mike Sullivan - President, Utility Safety Partners

Promoting safety awareness isn’t easy. We take our safety for granted. Despite the ample warnings and resources devoted to developing and promoting awareness campaigns, “It couldn’t happen to me” is what we often hear (or think).

I’ve been around long enough to have witnessed many campaigns over the years. Some were good. Some were really good. And some, well, they weren’t any good at all.

The true-life testimonies always struck a chord with me. Whether I was part of an audience listening to a keynote speaker deliver their story of how they escaped death, but were never the same, or seeing someone deliver their story on YouTube, every single one begins the same way “It was just a typical day…”

Years ago, it was also typical to promote awareness through “shock and awe”. I recall working with the National Energy Board and frequently seeing images of pipeline ruptures and fire to draw attention to excavators to Call Before You Dig (ClickBeforeYouDig wasn’t “a thing” back then) until one day, someone said “We’re doing this all wrong. Delivering hydrocarbons by pipeline is the safest method of transportation and yet, these images are telling people they blow up all the time!”

They were right. Pipelines are, by far, the safest method of transporting hydrocarbons but, people still do things they shouldn’t. People still drive without a seatbelt. Still get behind the wheel when they shouldn’t. And still dig without locates.

So how do we get the message across?

It isn’t easy but the people who do it for a living certainly make it look that way. It involves loads of research, analysis and creativity. 

At USP, we’ve been involved in a variety of campaigns over the years and one of my personal favourites successfully blended the taboo "shock and awe," creativity and artistry all into one.

Our “Not All Graves Are Six Feet Deep” campaign got a lot of “air time” — and that was before USP had much of a social media impact. The artist literally threw rocks, dirt, leaves (and you’ll also find an earthworm or two) onto a canvas and created the image by moving the debris out of the way to reveal the white canvas below. It was, and remains, spectacular and I have a three-by-two-foot wall hanging of it in my office. Mousepads with this image were spread far and wide across the province and I suspect some are still in circulation (you might want to wash those if you haven’t by now). We also had toques made, which were extremely popular.

Did it move the “awareness” needle? It’s so hard to tell but it certainly created a lot of interest and that’s what we were after.

Maybe it’s time to bring it back.