As readers know, it makes me mad when people try to sell cars or products using a message that undermines safe teen driving. For example, last year, I joined many other traffic safety advocates taking issue with an Apple ad that showed six teens in a car, whooping it up with electronic devices as they drove on a highway.
I write today about a new Mazda print ad. As always, my purpose is not to criticize but to educate. The ad shows a teen displaying his driver’s license. The accompanying text says (my emphasis in CAPS): “It was finally just you and the open road. NO PARENTS. No instructors. You could drive to school, to the beach, to the next state. It didn’t matter where you went. If it had a road, you could drive there. There was a newfound sense of freedom and joy you felt behind the wheel. That feeling is something we put into every Mazda we make….”
With all due respect, this ad sends a very dangerous message to teens and their parents. It implies that once a teen gets a license, freedom to drive anywhere, anytime is not just exhilarating, but the teen’s right. And safe.
The reality is that any parent who would give this degree of freedom to a teen driver on the first day he or she gets a license would be doing exactly the opposite of what mountains if evidence show a parent should do. It is well-documented that the first year of licensing is when teens have the highest crash rates. It is when thousands of them die or are seriously injured in crashes. In the first year, parent supervision and control are critical.
I am calling on Mazda to retract this ad, and the traffic safety community to join in asking them to do so.
