Royal Lifesaving WA launches ‘Passwords with a Purpose’ campaign via 303 MullenLowe, Perth
303 MullenLowe, Perth has changed the WIFI passwords in public pools across WA to encourage poolside parents to watch their children around water.
According to WA Lifeguards, there is a growing trend of parents watching their smartphones instead of their children. To add to this problem, more and more swimming centres now offer free WIFI to their guests. So, Royal Lifesaving WA gave 303 MullenLowe the challenge of encouraging families to refocus their attention away from their phones and back to their children’s safety.
The agency’s solution was to simply change the WIFI passwords to safety messages from the kids themselves. Passwords such as ‘p00L_123’, became messages such as: “you_are_my_lifeguard”.
Says Richard Berney, ECD, 303 MullenLowe, Perth: “Drowning is the number one cause of preventable death for children under five in Western Australia. By using WIFI passwords as the medium, we’ll turn a distraction into a potentially lifesaving instruction.”
Last year almost half of injuries recorded at public swimming pool facilities in Western Australia involved children under 14 years of age.
Says Lauren Nimmo, senior manager health promotion and research at the Royal Life Saving Society WA: “It only takes seconds for a child to drown, and any distraction – even if you’re only checking your mobile phone for a moment – places them at risk. This campaign will help to educate parents, so they are more aware of their supervision responsibilities while visiting public pools.”
The Watch Around Water program has been promoting safe supervision messages at public swimming pools throughout Western Australia for over a decade.
This campaign will run at 126 community swimming pools in Western Australia throughout summer.
Client: Royal Lifesaving WA
Senior Manager – Health and Promotion: Lauren Nimmo
Agency: 303 MullenLowe (Perth)
Executive Creative Director: Richard Berney
Art Director: Scott Pritchett
Business Director: Mike Naylor
Business Managers: Jessica Bunney/Jenna Hardie
Photographer: Elizabeth Looker
8 Comments
nice one.
This makes me angry.
So many of our ideas in this industry dance around the problem in a clever way, but don’t actually address it.
Free WiFi at public pools? Why? That’s ridiculous.
If it’s causing parent’s to be less attentive, get rid of the free WiFi, simple as that.
Better yet, ban mobile phones near the pool.
This was a problem that didn’t call for a clever ‘ad’ solution.
Great work 303 ML Perth.
Yes. Nice one guys.
@qt3.14, you could do this, but it wouldn’t make for interesting ideas. Why don’t we just congratulate 303 on a great idea?
@New AD guy
Parents are still going to look at their phones, ignoring their kids.
If it doesn’t actually solve the problem, is it a great idea?
Cancel the wifi and people complain and/or go to other pools. It’s a smart way to remind parents to watch their kids – smarter still would be to have another message at the logon screen. There are too many ad-wanky ideas floating around our industry … but I don’t think this is one of them.
I think this idea is nice and simple. However, here’s something way better. Having this message play over the loudspeakers at pools would work a treat. D&AD White Pencil Material.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P53U-0DD98g
@@qt3.14
“Cancel the wifi and people complain and/or go to other pools.”
I don’t think that’s true.
My local supermarket doesn’t have free WiFi, but I go there every day. Same as my local cafe.
Free WiFi is an add-on at best, it’s not a key motivator for a pool.