Donovan, R.J., Jalleh, G. & Henley, N. (1999). Executing effective road safety advertising: are big production budgets necessary? Accident Analysis and Prevention 31, 243-252.

Twelve road safety television commercials addressing four areas of driver behaviour (speed, drink driving, fatigue and inattention) were evaluated. The cost of producing the commercials ranged from inexpensive ($A15,000) to very expensive ($A250,000). Standard advertising pre-test procedures were used to determine the self-reported impact of the commercial on respondent’s (n=1000) future intentions to comply with the road safety behaviour promoted in the ad. Whilst the most expensive (and most dramatic) commercials performed best, some of the “low cost talking heads testimonials” performed very well. The authors question whether big advertising budgets are necessary for ads to be effective. [Modified Author Abstract]