Two pedestrians crossing a busy junction collide. A girl walks straight into a bus stop. A young man walks rams into a pole on the pavement. Another pedestrian falls into a pond while walking. A man hurtles down the stairs as he loses his balance.
All of these seemingly funny clips have one thing in common – the people featured in them were too busy texting to note where they were going.
A compilation of these clips (above) might look like an episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos but it is actually a lot more than that. This powerful commercial made by South Africa’s Western Cape Government’s Safely Home department has a gut-wrenching ending and an important message:
“You can’t even text and walk. So why do you text and drive?”
The video, with #ItCanWait, is reminiscent of American network provider AT&T’s 2016 campaign with a series of advertisements based on the same slogan (below.
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