Let your child make friends on the bus

Background

With the new school year coming up, De Lijn, Belgium’s public transport company, wanted to send out a mailing to parents of children who were about to start in Year Seven. The goal was to convince them to let their child go to school by bus, rather than dropping them off by car. Because going by bus is the best way to make friends.

Idea

On a regular school morning, the children on the bus were invited to write the message themselves. Between them, they wrote a letter by hand. Each child wrote one sentence and passed the paper on to the child sitting next to them. So the letter was literally written by a group of seventh graders, inviting parents to let their child take the bus too. Thus they were able to demonstrate the most important benefit of taking the bus: social contact. Each parent received a copy, including a link where they could go online to see the making of the letter.

Results

Results are not yet available. But De Lijn has received numerous e-mails and calls from parents who were touched by the campaign.

Our Thoughts

This is a topic, which I, as a parent myself, feel strongly about. Parents are so over-protective of their children these days that kids become detached, unadventurous and even lonely.

So I love this idea. It circumnavigates all the objections parents might have to their children using public transport by getting other parents’ children to write the letter.

The hand-written missive makes it look and feel authentic. Kids talking rather than the bus company.