Non-Bob

Background

In Belgium ‘Bob’ is a first name. But it’s also the ultimate symbol of ‘designated driver’. The name was installed through the Bob campaign that has been running since 1995. The word ‘Bob’ is so iconic that you can find it in Dutch dictionaries, and several other European countries adopted the word and the campaign. For 25 consecutive years the police have been organising alcohol checks where they hand out Bob key rings to drivers who didn’t drink. 98% of all Belgians know exactly what BOB means. Nevertheless, Belgians continue to drink and drive. Still one out of five road accidents is due to alcohol.

Idea

That is why Belgian Traffic Institute VIAS and the organisation Parents of Road Victims are launching a remarkable campaign: in addition to the well-known Bob key ring for responsible drivers, the police will also hand out key rings to drivers who did drive under the influence. No Bob key rings of course, but key rings with the names of children who fell victim to a driver driving under the influence: Axelle, Corwin, Nathan, Laetitia ... The confronting 'non-Bob key rings' have the same typical font and the same yellow colour as the iconic Bob logo. Apart from the handing out during police alcohol checks the campaign also consists out of campaign films and the website www.nonbob.be where you will discover the stories of all eight young victims, told by their parents or grandparents. Drivers who were caught during the alcohol checks can afterwards exchange their ‘non-Bob’ key ring for a traffic course at VIAS. This training examines the influence of alcohol on drivers’ behaviour in more detail.

Results

The campaign is still running. But in the meantime over 2000 ‘non-bob’ keyrings have been spread to drunk drivers. Nothing to be proud of as a result, obviously since the best result would be a complete change in behavior…