I think the tag 'stupidity' is really the answer to the question. Americans look at their vehicles as appliances. The vast majority think they're driving around a toaster rather than a 4000lb killing machine.

And yes, I am American.

I wear my seatbelt out of force of habit. When I was growing up, my parents would refuse to start the car unless I fastened it.

Now that is one habit that I am extremely happy that I fell into. I've been in one major car accident, and wearing my seatbelt then certainly saved me from serious injury if not saving my life.

American's are the honey-badger of personal safety.

I'm a bit obsessive about wearing my seatbelt because as a small child (maybe 3 or 4), I fell out of a moving car and landed in the street. (Fortunately, the approaching car saw me and stopped.)

@MilkmanDan - That's funny. I do that to my wife, refusing to pull away from the curb until she's properly buckled in. But it's not to make it a habit; it's to satisfy my paranoia that someone will crash into us and kill her. Or maybe I'm subconsciously worried that she'll fall out of the car like I did.

I wear my seatbelt because the last 3 cars I've bought beep at my constantly until I put the damn thing on.

Also I have to point out that this paints death in a very negative light...surely there are some dead people who would like to speak up at these disparaging images of death...it's purely discriminatory.

When I was a kid, I fell off my seat in school buses. One time, I had a big accident and lost my front teeth and bled like crazy. My parents sued to school district and added seat belt for me.

Broke my spine and five ribs, but I survived because I was buckled up.

If we look at the data, the American commercials likely produce more of the desired result.

>> ^chilaxe:

If we look at the data, the American commercials likely produce more of the desired result.


I wouldn't be so sure about that. While I don't have hard data at hand, there is one big difference in American and European cars that is related to this: Airbags. The American airbag is designed to be able to stop an adult that is not wearing a seatbelt, because so many people don't use the darn things. European and Japanese cars on the other hand have much less powerful airbags, that are designed to cope with someone that is wearing their seatbelt. Cars that are imported to the States often get the "America spec" airbag added because of this. This would suggest that using seatbelts is vastly less common in the States.

Measuring the effectiveness of a current ad campaign by comparing macro trends that have going on for decades isn't going to be accurate. Useful data would need to be obtained by measuring drivers' behavior after viewing the two ads.

Most psychologists would probably say driver behavior will be more influenced by high threat of financial loss (loss aversion) than a soft, artful depiction of an unlikely event that speeders assume can't happen to them.

If there's a lower rate of seatbelt use in the US, it's probably due to hard reasons like the higher average education level among drivers in Europe and Japan, where car use is more expensive.


Anybody conscientious enough to appreciate an artistic ad has probably only very rarely met the kind of person who doesn't wear their seatbelt.

>> ^jubuttib:

>> ^chilaxe:
If we look at the data, the American commercials likely produce more of the desired result.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. While I don't have hard data at hand, there is one big difference in American and European cars that is related to this: Airbags. The American airbag is designed to be able to stop an adult that is not wearing a seatbelt, because so many people don't use the darn things. European and Japanese cars on the other hand have much less powerful airbags, that are designed to cope with someone that is wearing their seatbelt. Cars that are imported to the States often get the "America spec" airbag added because of this. This would suggest that using seatbelts is vastly less common in the States.