The city of Ottawa has pulled jaywalking advertisements from its test ads for an upcoming road safety campaign this fall, after councillors and the public criticized the graphic nature of the ad and its messaging.
One of the ads featured an image of a bloodied pedestrian lying on the ground, with the caption, “You jaywalked to save time. But you lost it. Forever. Cross only where it is safe.”
Several councillors called on the city of Ottawa to remove the ad immediately, with Coun. Sean Devine expressing concern with “the ad and the messaging it conveys.”
Coun. Ariel Troster also asked staff to pull “this terrible ad” immediately.
“Road violence is caused by driver negligence or bad street design. Blaming pedestrians for crossing the street wrong is offensive,” Troster said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter."
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It’s the graphic ads that work, they stick with you and make you remember them. This was an awful decision by someone too easily offended.
Then show how bad the driver feels after killing a pedestrian, instead of blaming the pedestrian for having been killed.
“You sped to save time. Instead, you destroyed someone else’s.”
Much better.