A great blog post by a master marketeer, Seth Godin, today. He comments on the unlikelihood of emotional appeals, such as the recent Werner Herzog short film, to change deeply entrenched values and behaviours in our culture:
- The culture of the car as a haven, a roving office, and a place
where you do what you like - The culture of the Marlboro man, no speed limiters in cars,
'optional' speed limits on roads - The culture of connection and our fear of being left out
- The culture of technology, and our bias to permit it first
and ask questions later
He notes that part of the solution could be notifying others of a driver's status as they could be held liable for knowingly causing dangerous distractions. However, he summarizes the most "inexpensive, fast and effective" solution perfectly:
... when a phone is moving, don't permit it to accomplish certain tasks.
People won't die as a result.
It won't cost the companies a penny in profit.
And defenders of the status quo will scream about freedom and access and rights and how it used to be. They will worry about people on trains or passengers in carpools.
But you know what? It's better than being dead. Better than being the victim of the one out of three drivers I see who couldn't wait ...