'Road safety' chosen as the topic for this year's UAE Young Creatives Competition

The creative brief for the integrated media campaign was prepared by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai, and focused on increasing public awareness on the dangers of overspeeding, running red lights and not wearing seat belts. Every year, the theme for the UAE Young Creatives Competition revolves around a social responsibility issue, and this is the first time that road safety has been chosen.

Twenty teams from UAE's advertising fraternity comprising young art directors and copy writers participated in the competition and the winners will represent UAE in the international competition at the 53rd Cannes International Advertising Festival in June 2006. The Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival is the largest gathering of the worlds advertising, creative, direct marketing, interactive, radio, media & marketing communities.

Muna Harib, Manager of Traffic Awareness, RTA said,

"With an objective of maximizing road safety and reducing accidents, RTA has been involved in various initiatives to spread awareness on the dangers of rash driving and to underline the importance of following traffic rules. The UAE Young Creatives Competition is the right platform for us to publicize our message of safety and educate people not only nationally but internationally through the advertising festival in Cannes."

Liam Marshall, General Manager, Motivate Val Morgan, said, "With social responsibility as the theme every year, we decided to emphasize on road safety this time, given the alarming increase in accident rates in the country. Overspeeding and negligent driving are the main causes for fatal accidents and it is important to create awareness about these aspects especially among youngsters, who are often involved in major accidents. We are glad that the Roads and Transport Authority has played such a crucial role in supporting this competition and contributed towards a worthy cause."

"According to the brief given by RTA, the artwork had to positively reflect the impact of injuries and fatalities caused by overspeeding, running red lights and not wearing seatbelt, and had to create a leadership position for RTA as an educator for safety in the UAE. The target audience for this campaign included drivers from various age groups, with particular focus on young drivers between the ages of 18 to 30 years," added Muna Harib.