Embrace Life

Despite being a legal requirement for all car drivers and passengers in the UK, some people fail to wear their seat belt. The Sussex Safer Roads Partnership is a local government body in the East Sussex and West Sussex areas of England, and was looking to produce an internet-based road safety campaign film with a positive message (rather than one using more graphic shock tactics) to create sustainable behaviour change. Double BAFTA Award–winning writer and director Daniel Cox learned of the proposed campaign, and approached the Partnership with an idea for just such a film: Key to the film's creation was to focus on a message that didn't take a conventional route to shock and scare the audience; rather it was my intention to bring the audience in on the conversation of road safety, specifically seat belts, and the best way to do this was to make a film that could engage the viewer purely visually and could be seen and understood by all, whoever they are and wherever they lived. :— Daniel Cox The inspiration for Embrace Life came from wanting to offer a positive message towards road safety really. A lot of the campaigns focus on the more graphic and horrific outcomes of accidents, whereas I really wanted to bring people into the conversation. The house represents a safety area, an area where you're normally surrounded by your loved ones, and the car can be an extension of that, but it's not only yourself that's impacted if something unfortunately goes wrong, but also family and friends too. :— Daniel Cox ==Production==

The film had a small budget of £47,000 (US$72,000) and was shot over two days in the summer of 2009 at Halliford Studios in London. It has a running time of 1 minute 29 seconds. The music was specially composed for the film by Dutch composer Siddhartha (Sid) Barnhoorn, and is available as a download from his online music store. Main credits • Writer/Director: Daniel Cox • Producer: Sarah Alexander • Executive Producer: Neil Hopkins (Sussex Safer Roads Partnership) • Director of Photography: Luke Scott • Music Composer: Siddhartha Barnhoorn • Production Designer: Aoife Wilson • Art Director: James Custance • Cast • Father: Austin Spangler • Mother: Lara Corrochano • Daughter: Clare Denning A full list of credits can be found at the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership website. ==Film==

A father, mother and daughter are playing in their living room, with the father play-acting at driving a car: he turns an imaginary ignition key, operates an imaginary pedal and steers an imaginary wheel. His family watch from the sofa. The father turns to look at them, and as he turns back, his concentration momentarily taken from the "road", he sees some sort of peril approaching. He grimaces and turns the wheel to the left to avoid the oncoming threat. Realising the danger he is in, the daughter rushes to him and embraces him around the waist; his wife follows, putting her arms around his upper body, making the shape of a seat belt. The impact occurs, and the man is violently thrown in his seat; his legs jolt out and kick over a table with a bowl holding small metallic decorations. The bowl is thrown upwards and the metal decorations shower down. The daughter and mother successfully restrain the father, and he recovers, bringing his arms up to embrace his family who have saved him. The legend "Embrace Life Always wear your seat belt" appears on the left of the screen, and as the film fades to black the triangular grey, orange and blue Embrace Life logo is shown above that of the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership. Imagery The daughter's and mother's arms represent the two parts of a seat belt. The film was made for a British audience; cars are driven on the left hand side of the road in the UK and so the positioning of the mother's arms reflects the position of the upper seat belt strap for a driver in the UK. Similarly, the father turns the wheel to the left (the shoulder part of the road in the UK) to avoid the oncoming danger. If the film was shown in mirror image, it would correct these apparent inconsistencies for audiences in those parts of the world where cars are driven on the right hand side. The daughter is wearing fairy wings. Some commentators have seen these as angel wings, symbolising a guardian angel. The small metallic decorations graphically represent the shattered windscreen glass and metal fragments generated during a car accident. ==Campaign==

The film was first shown to the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership members, including emergency services representatives, at The Capitol, Horsham, West Sussex on 20 January 2010. (The Embrace Life website address had already been taken, and so was not available. Embrace This was chosen as the alternative.) At the same time a public space art gallery was set up in a disused shop in Horsham. The existing web front page – at that time just the countdown clock and the logo – was shown on a large plasma screen along with props from the film and stills. These were all designed to give nothing away, to heighten curiosity about the campaign. Children were encouraged to interact by drawing a picture of what made them feel safe, and then to add it to the wall. By the end of the installation, the walls were covered with children's drawings, and visitors and participants were given a flier with the campaign's web address. The film was launched on the website on 20 January 2010. The film was put on YouTube by the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership on 29 January 2010. ==Reception==

The lack of dialogue means Embrace Life is accessible to all viewers, no matter what nationality. Once it was put on to the internet it rapidly spread around the globe, gaining over a million views in its first two weeks. By 13 February 2010 it had reached 129 different countries, was the 5th top rated video that month on YouTube and was the most top rated YouTube film of all time in the education category. and American Idol presenter Ryan Seacrest also embedded the YouTube film in his website, describing it as "beautiful", "visually arresting" and "poignant". An article in the New York Daily News drew a comparison between the poorly received (and expensive) advertisements during the Super Bowl XLIV on 7 February 2010 and "the breath of fresh air" of Embrace Life. So far, the film has not been shown on British national television as part of a road safety campaign, although it was featured on Live from Studio Five on Five on 19 April 2010 and there is a Facebook campaign to get it shown on British television as part of a road safety campaign. Neil Hopkins said of the film's success: "Originally, we wanted something to run on local cinema screens, on my workplace’s website, and on DVDs at educational interventions within our county. We never dreamed that the campaign would touch so many people." On 26 June 2010 it won a Bronze award in the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, in the Public Health & Safety category. Embrace Life was also shortlisted for the UK's Chartered Institute of Highways and Transport / Atkins 'Road Safety – Reducing All Casualties' Award, in the awards ceremony of 16 June 2010, but did not win. In November 2010 Embrace Life won the inaugural YouTube Advert of the Year Award, winning with three times more votes than its nearest competitor. As of 8 December 2015, Embrace Life has had 19,035,272 views on the Sussex Safer Roads channel on YouTube. Highest honours for the video on YouTube include No. 8 Top Rated (All Time), No. 1 Top Rated (All Time) Education and No. 1 Top Favourited (All Time) Education. It reached its highest Top Rated (All Time) rating in late April-early May 2010. ==References==