May 12, 2003

New television and radio ads, with a stronger enforcement message, will hit the airwaves today as part of a statewide advertising campaign to warn motorists of an upcoming safety belt crackdown. Buckle Up or Pay Up will be paired with the well-known Click it or Ticket message during a two-week ad blitz.

Safety officials say the ad campaign is a critical component to successful efforts to increase safety belt use, part of a larger effort to save lives and reduce injuries on Michigan’s roads. Federal traffic safety funds will pay for the half million-dollar ad campaign in Michigan, targeting motorists least likely to buckle up: young men. No state general fund money is being used to support this effort. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will devote an additional $8 million to a national broadcast advertising campaign in support of highly visible enforcement.

The two-week national safety belt mobilization runs May 19 through June 1 and will involve nearly 500 Michigan law enforcement agencies.

The Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning sought this year to revise the Click it or Ticket message, one of several changes incorporated to achieve higher safety belt use. Through a series of focus groups involving young men, a stronger and more direct enforcement theme was identified. Buckle Up or Pay Up is now the theme in television and radio ads.

"Click it or Ticket helped Michigan increase safety belt use by more than 10 percentage points over three years ago," said Anne Readett, OHSP public information specialist. "However, it was time to more clearly signal that stepped-up enforcement is taking place during the safety belt enforcement mobilizations to change driver behavior."

Despite a significant increase in safety belt use following the change in law in 2000, belt use is still lowest among 16- to 29-year-olds at 79.3 percent, according to a direct observation survey conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in the fall of 2002. For 16- to 29-year-old males, belt use is only 72.8 percent, compared to 86.4 percent for females in the same age group.

Overall, Michigan recorded 82.9 percent belt use last year, slightly below the record set when the law changed in March 2000 – 83.5 percent. Statistically, the belt use rate has not changed.

"These results argue strongly for statewide efforts to be directed toward persuading young males, and males in general, to wear their safety belts," the study concluded.

Focus group participants made it clear that the safety belt fine was a strong incentive to buckle up, Readett said. "This group works hard for their money and they don’t want to part with it because of a safety belt fine," she added.

The Buckle Up or Pay Up message is part of a new ad series created by Pace and Partners of Lansing. Ads, placed by Brogan and Partners of Detroit, will appear on television, cable and radio stations with the greatest appeal to young men in metro Detroit, Flint/Saginaw/Bay City, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Traverse City and the Upper Peninsula.

Read more press releases from the Michigan State Police.