Think for a moment about all of the phone peripherals you’ve sourced. Charging banks, bluetooth speakers, headphones, and earpieces—it’s certainly one of the hottest categories in promotional products. But, are you selling these accessories as lifesavers? It may just be a new angle to increase sales you haven’t thought of.
Over the past two years, according to the National Safety Council, U.S. traffic fatalities surged by 14.4 percent. That’s after decades of declining deaths on the road. In 2016 alone, more than 100 people died every day in or near vehicles in America. That’s someone hurt in a crash every eight seconds. Regulators don’t have a really good idea why crash-related deaths are up. People are driving longer distances, but not that much more, total miles driven were up just 2.2 percent last year. As a country, we seem to be speeding and drinking a little more, but not that much more. Experts say these two relatively small increases don’t explain the significant surge in road deaths.
There are three potential explanations, according to the NSC. First is the substantial increase in smartphone use as we drive. No surprise there—from 2014 to 2016, the share of Americans who owned a smartphone rose from 75 percent to 81 percent.
Next, it seems the younger the driver is, the more they don’t use their phone for conversation. Texting, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the major communication platforms for young people today. According to the NSC, in 2015, almost 70 percent of Americans were using their phones to share photos and follow news events on social media. Just two years later, that figure has jumped to 80 percent, and those activities create so much more distraction while driving than simply talking on the phone.
Additionally, the increase in fatalities is largest among bicyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians. They are easy to miss if you’re just glancing up from your phone every now and then. Last year, 5,987 pedestrians were killed by cars in the U.S. That number is 1,100 more than in 2014, a 22 percent increase in just two years.
Now here’s the “nobody’s counting” problem when it comes to distracted driving. Mobile phone traffic is shifting away from simple voice calls and texts to encrypted social networks, meaning regulators have less data available than ever before. According to a recent study done by the NSC, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is significantly under-reporting distracting driving deaths. In 2015, the most recent data available, only 448 deaths were linked to mobile phones. That’s a paltry 1.4 percent of all traffic fatalities. That would mean drunk driving is 23 times more deadly than using a phone while driving. You know something has to be fishy when in more than half of 2015 fatal crashes, motorists were simply going straight down the road. They hadn’t encountered another vehicle, had problems with severe weather or failure of their vehicle, like a tire going flat. That just doesn’t add up—something else had to be going on behind the wheel. In a study of three million people done by Zendrive, drivers are using their mobile phone during 88 percent of trips, and that number is actually even higher because they did not include “hands-free” driving.
So, what can you do about something that is illegal, yet mostly tolerated in our society? Fifteen states outlaw using a phone while driving altogether, and 47 states bar texting while driving. If you tell people at your office, or your client, that you regularly drink and drive, you know you will generate some strong opinions condemning it. But, if you tell people you text and drive? Not so much. In fact, we see drivers on the road ignoring the law every day. Perhaps you could suggest this campaign to your client—why wouldn’t they support a don’t text and drive campaign, or don’t search your music, or don’t check what’s happening on Facebook campaign? Could be kind of a cool selling point: We want to sell you these products, but we’d love for you to consider pairing them with a message that can keep your customers and end-users safe. And alive.
We’ve talked here before that communication of product recalls is critically important. Unfortunately, people don’t pay attention to the notices. That became sadly apparent again recently after the news of another death from the tip over of an IKEA dresser. More than a year after the largest recall in history- 29 million topple-prone dressers, another toddler has been killed in California. The Consumer Product Safety Commission confirmed it has opened an investigation, but the bottom line is that a lawyer for the family confirmed that the parents were not aware of the recall and had not heard of the associated tipping dangers. As part of the June 2016 recall, IKEA agreed to come to consumers’ homes to take away old dressers and hand out refunds to replace the pieces of furniture. If a customer wanted to keep the dressers, IKEA said it would send a crew out to ensure that the piece is anchored to the wall properly.
“We’ve been trying to pressure CPSC and IKEA both to do more,” said Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids in Danger. “Because this is a result of a bad recall, that more children are injured.”
Jeff Jacobs has been an expert in building brands and brand stewardship for 40 years, working in commercial television, Hollywood film and home video, publishing, and promotional brand merchandise. He’s a staunch advocate of consumer product safety and has a deep passion and belief regarding the issues surrounding compliance and corporate social responsibility. He retired as executive director of Quality Certification Alliance, the only non-profit dedicated to helping suppliers provide safe and compliant promotional products. Before that, he was director of brand merchandise for Michelin. You can find him still advising Global 500 Brands on promo product initiatives, working as a volunteer Guardian ad Litem, traveling the world with his lovely wife, or enjoying a cigar at his favorite local cigar shop. Follow Jeff on Twitter, or reach out to him at jacobs.jeffreyp@gmail.com.