Looking beyond the bridge of awards
Dave Trott looks at the long-term effects of award-winning campaign Bridge of Life, which aimed to reverse suicide rates at the Mapo bridge in Seoul.
In 2013, the Cannes Titanium Lion went to a campaign called Bridge of Life. In fact, the campaign won 37 awards around the world.
So it was a success, at least as far as awards went.
And that’s pretty much the only metric advertising measures anything by.
An interesting point Dave, how about looking at one a little closer to home… did Dumb Ways to Die have a positive impact on the number of people being hit by trains in Melbourne?
I’ve found I can stop myself getting so angry at lauded but demonstrably ineffective social cause campaigns if I keep reminding myself creative awards are only ever a measure of visible cleverness. Regardless of category, creative awards must never be seen – and certainly never used – as a reliable currency of good advertising. Great stuff wins, terrible stuff wins, charlatans win and full-on cheats win. Side by side on the podium, every one of them is a genius. A telling question I like to ask is ‘would this campaign exist is awards didn’t exist?’ In the case of the Mapo Bridge, almost certainly not. The higher barriers would have gone up years sooner and lives would have been saved. Think about that all you agency glory-hunters.
“The Yohap News Agency said…rose to 396 in 2014, 543 in 2015, and 532 in 2016.
They said… 15 attempted suicides with 8 actual fatalities, a greatly reduced number.
But other figures show … volunteers stopped at least 85 people from jumping.”
What exactly are we comparing here? There is a damned big difference from 532 and 15 and then a jump to 85! There are dates for the first set of numbers but nothing for the last two!
Basically this article has to;d us very little about where the Mapo Bridge’s “Bridge of Life” stands now in terms of suicide rates for 2018.