ASA Adjudication on Department of the Environment

Ad

A radio ad for a road safety campaign featured women talking to each other and said, "To think, they had the cheek to talk about women drivers, when they're the dangerous ones. And even worse, it's us girls that suffer for it. In Ireland, most female road deaths are caused by male drivers. So it's time for all of us girls to put our foot down. That means, the next time a fella wants to take you for a spin, and you don't trust his driving, don't even think about getting in. Because in too many collisions, He drives, she dies." The voice-over stated “DoE and PSNI”.

Issue

The listener objected that:

1. the ad was offensive and sexist because it suggested that all men drivers were killer drivers, and

2. the ad was misleading by omission because it did not state the source of the claim or the age of male drivers who were involved in road traffic accidents and therefore implied all male drivers were dangerous.

BCAP Radio Code

Response

Lyle Bailie International (LB) responded on behalf of the Department of the Environment (DoE) and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

1. LB said that the "He Drives, She Dies" campaign was in support of human dignity and sought to oppose harm to any members of the public. They believed that male drivers were over-represented in fatal collisions and argued that it would be offensive not to reflect this fact and make both women and men aware of the consequences of dangerous driving.

The Radio Advertising Clearance Centre (RACC) said they believed the womens comments about male drivers would be understood in the context of a road safety campaign and did not believe the ad would be interpreted as offensive or sexist by most listeners, nor did they believe it suggested that all male drivers were "killer drivers".

2. LB said that road fatality statistics for Northern Ireland demonstrated that between 2004 and 2008, 75% of those females were killed in accidents where the driver was male and their passengers were female. They argued that according to police statistics, men were over-represented as the drivers involved in fatal collisions, accounting for 85%, compared to 15% for female drivers. They also submitted evidence drawn between 2004 and 2008 to show that, proportionally, men were involved in 86% of fatal crashes where speed was a contributory factor.

In addition, LB sent examples of data from 1997 to 2006, the most up-to-date 10-year data available, to show that men in that period accounted for 80% of the drivers in fatal collisions. Furthermore, they said a study in 2003 showed that in accidents where alcohol was a contributory factor, 89.7% of drivers were male, whilst only 10.3% were female and that male drivers reported blood alcohol concentrations of nearly double that of women. LB sent graphs to show the proportional breakdown of accidents by age and gender which showed that men, throughout the age groups, were over-represented as drivers in fatal accidents.

The RACC said they did not believe the ad needed to qualify the source of the claim or state the age of the drivers because it was a generic road safety message that merely aimed to alert women to the number of deaths caused by male drivers.

Assessment

1. Not upheld

The ASA understood that some listeners might object to the emphasis of the risks involved for women at the hands of irresponsible drivers. However, we considered that in the context of a road safety campaign, listeners would understand that the ad highlighted the statistical risks to encourage prudent behaviour and raise awareness of the precautions women could take by avoiding being the passenger of someone who they were concerned might be a dangerous driver. We therefore considered that listeners would understand the claim in the context of the serious message the ad conveyed and concluded that it was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence or be seen as sexist.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) Radio Advertising Standards Code section 2, rule 9 (Good taste, decency and offence to public feeling) but did not find it in breach.

2. Not upheld

We noted the evidence sent by LB in support of the assertion that male drivers were over-represented in statistics for fatal collisions. Although we understood that the risk diminished with the age of the male driver, men between the ages of 17 and 49 years were still most likely to be the drivers in fatal collisions. Furthermore, in older age groups, although the numbers of fatalities were reduced, proportionally, men were still the drivers in more crashes that resulted in fatalities. Because the evidence demonstrated that men, in a broad range of age groups, were statistically over-represented in fatal collisions, we concluded that the ad was unlikely to mislead listeners and did not need to cite the source of the claim.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) Radio Advertising Standards Code section 2, rule 3.1 (Misleading advertising) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action necessary

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)