Typography Case Study

My case study this week is going to focus on the The Ad Council’s campaign adverts to make drivers aware of the dangers of using their phone’s whilst driving.

From the advert you can see that the driver is checking his phone at the wheel, with the words ‘DON’T LET TEXTING BLIND YOU’ covering his face. 

Starting with this feature of the ad; the words have been typed in a san-serif font (the same as those used to paint signs on the road), coloured white and in capitals in order for them to stand out. It does this because the words are based on a darker background, meaning that has they been in black they wouldn’t have been as vivid and also to make us either consciously or sub-consciously link it to road safety. They have also inputting some drop lettering in there (with a slight black shading underneath the words as this makes it stand out more from the background). They have ensured that the tracking between the letters is very minimal, however enough that you can clearly see what the word says. They have also minimised the leading so that the words are almost touching each other between each line. I believe the reason for doing this is because they’re trying to show that the there is physically no way that you can text and drive and have any kind of clear vision of the road. By minimising both the leading and the tracking it is preventing you from seeing most features of the drivers face and hence showing the view that he has when he is texting (not much at all). 

Moving on to the other piece of text, ‘STOP THE TEXTS. STOP THE WRECKS.’ which is based below the driver, again this is in capital letters to make it more noticeable. They have chosen to highlight the word ‘stop’ in both short sentences by using a yellow font colour. They have done this so that that specific word stands out the most out of the sentences, something which is essential for the campaign they're leading as they want to get people to stop texting at the wheel. They have also chosen to have rhyming words at the ends of both sentences, ‘texts’ and ‘wrecks’, in order to make the advert catchy and easy to remember. 

The advert is very engaging as they have used realistic scenery of the car in the background of the advert and having the words so bold in front of his face immediately draws you into the ad. The connotations of the positioning of the words resonates with you as it shows you just how little you can see when you risk texting and driving, and therefore highlighting just how dangerous it is to do so. 

The advert is powerful as it is able to engage an audience simply by the placement and layout of the words, something which is harder to do in a still advert as compared to a moving one (on the television).