Re:act: Distraction

The annual Re:act program challenges university students to create a behaviour change campaign that raises awareness among 18-25 year old road users of a critical road safety issue where they are over-represented. The Re:act 2020 topic was ‘distraction’.

An initiative of creative behaviour change agency Hard Edge, Re:act, now in its fifth year, expanded internationally in 2020, running in London for the first time at London College of Communication, and with the support of industry partners FIA Foundation, Pepsi, Zurich and Transport for London. The program also ran in Australia this year in Melbourne with Swinburne University, Sydney at University of Technology Sydney, and Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane.

The selected campaign for Re:act 2020 in London, ‘#EyesUpPhonesDown’, was created by LCC Graphic Branding & Identity student Reana Kerai. But three of the top four campaigns were designed by Graphic & Media Design final year students, all showing diverse approaches. The ‘Stay Focused’ campaign (by Sue An) highlighted many of the distractions we face in our busy lives, ‘Stay Grounded’ (by Nathalie Ryan) focused on headphones as a distraction for pedestrians, and ‘Danger In Mind’ (by Rita Oom) used humour to convey a serious message.

Re:act founder and CEO Andrew Hardwick commended the LCC students on the standard of campaigns they produced. The quality and creativity of the campaigns was also praised by Re:act industry partners, who were ‘absolutely blown away’ by the students’ work, describing it as ‘inventive’, ‘original’, ‘striking’ and ‘compelling’. Feedback from program partners also reinforced the importance of Re:act’s ability to give students a ‘real world’ experience and to increase road safety awareness among a group of road users over-represented in road trauma, particularly around a topic personally relevant to them.

For more information on Re:act visit: reactforchange.com