Appealing to the youth of today?

I'm in a dill of a pickle of a cucumber.

VicRoads has launched a new range of ads online aimed at getting young people to behave in a more sensible fashion and have a greater chance of not crashing and dying and killing us all with them. I haven't seen them all, but I just watched one here (hopefully that will take you to the one with the lovely young Asian man speaking). And I really don't think it's appropriate.

I did, however, find it p**s-funny. Particular moments are at 1:00 and 1:16.

Which is what leads me to the dill-pickle-cucumber situation: on the one hand I think this ad really is not appropriate, mainly because of the swearing (and yes, I swear, but I believe there's a correct - or less incorrect - time and place, and an advertisement is neither), yet on the other hand that ad made me laugh out loud, and obviously it had an effect on me as I'm now blogging about it.

But on the OTHER hand (yes, I have three hands. I borrowed one) perhaps this is what will appeal to young drivers and maybe, just maybe, it'll make them think twice before using their phone while they drive. I mean, let's face it, the ad isn't aimed at children, it's aimed at people old enough to be driving on our roads, so there's very little chance they'll hear anything in it that they don't say themselves. In fact, they quite probably use far worse words in their every day life.

Unfortunately I'm not so sold or amused by some of the other VicRoads ads... "Emo" and "Red Head Gets It's Wings" I think are going too far (as well as the grammatical error in the Red Hed title just bugging me... my grammar is by no means spectacular, but come on people, this is an organisation advertising to young people - TRY to get it right) and I didn't enjoy them. Probably because they're poking fun at very specific sets of people, but not in the light-hearted way of the video I linked to. "Poleaxed" I thought was being a bit too flippant about a speed-related crash where the car flipped five times, knocking out a "No Stopping" sign but thankfully not killing anyone... The "Turn off Facebook" and "Turn off Twitter" ads were mildly smile-inducing for a second or two. And the "Using Your Mobile While Driving" air traffic control and surgery ads make a very good point.

I'm curious if other people have checked out the ads and how they'll be received generally. They're getting publicity in the newspapers with some pretty interesting feedback.

I guess, if nothing else, it's all drawing attention to the issue of safety on the roads.