May 17, 2004

A three-week "buckle up" advertising blitz starts today, featuring a new ad in the Buckle Up or Pay Up, Click It or Ticket lineup, announced the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP). Last year, OHSP fine tuned its message for safety belt enforcement efforts, pairing Buckle Up or Pay Up with the well-recognized Click It or Ticket.

The new message, combined with the introduction of safety belt enforcement zones in 2003, helped the state reach a record high safety belt use rate: 85 percent.

The new ad continues the stronger and more direct enforcement theme introduced last year. Earlier focus group testing indicated the safety belt fine was an effective means to encourage young men to buckle up. National research shows motorists do not respond to "soft" messages regarding traffic safety issues.

"Our number one goal is to increase safety belt use," said Michael L. Prince, OHSP division director. "This campaign message is meant to assist with those efforts. Asking people to buckle up because it will save their lives just doesn’t seem to make an impact."

No state general fund money is being used to support this effort that is funded entirely by federal traffic safety funds. As with past campaigns, the ads are designed to reach young men, the group least likely to buckle up.

Safety belt use is lowest among 16- to 29-year-olds at 81.3 percent, according to a direct observation survey conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in the fall of 2003. For 16- to 29-year-old males, belt use is only 75.6 percent, compared to 86.7 percent for females in the same age group.

The advertising buy will employ the use of television, cable and radio spots in the state’s major media markets, which include Battle Creek, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing and Saginaw.