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New farm safety campaign takes a fresh message to rural youth.
Farm safety awareness has been an important issue in agricultural policy for decades. Despite the ongoing emphasis of the use of safety gear and safe practices on the farm, statistics on agricultural accidents suggest there’s still much to be done.
“Safety is a tough sell,” says Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) Farm Safety Coordinator Laurel Aitken. “According to a survey carried out recently by Farm Credit Canada, there's a huge discrepancy between how safe we think we are and the actual statistics for farm-based accidents.”
Aitken and an ARD communications team decided to take a different approach to spreading the word about the use of best practices for farm safety. The group wanted to aim their communications squarely at, arguably, the toughest audience to reach: people between the ages of 17 and 25.
Why is this generation a challenging group for awareness-building? One reason is their media habits are different than their parents. They overwhelmingly favour on-demand electronic media over, for example, a monthly magazine or weekly newspaper. Another reason, in Aitken’s view, is the natural disinclination of youth to ponder their own mortality.
“It’s human nature at that age,” she says. “Young people tend to think they’re invincible, which of course they’re not, which is exactly why they can benefit from knowing more about farm safety. You just need to do it in a way that makes them less likely to tune out.”
Not your parents’ farm safety campaign
In 2008, ARD launched a new-look farm safety best practices campaign for youth and the farm businesses that employ them. Knowing that a theme that emphasized risk would likely miss the mark, Aitken’s team chose a different path.
“We wanted to connect farm safety to the activities that are important to this group,” she says. “That means recreation, music, hanging out with friends and sports.”
The theme of the campaign is Safety Up!, a sentiment that’s heard in two distinct ways. The first is that safety should be elevated to a higher level of importance. The second evokes the saying cowboy up, meaning to get with it and take some action.
Through a variety of media – radio ads, posters, a website and tradeshow displays – the 17-to-25 age group is asked to reflect on how a farm accident could keep them from doing what they love best. People are shown pursuing recreational activities, being with friends and playing sports – good times that are only possible when you come home safe.
Funding from the Agricultural Policy Framework, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative, allowed Aitken to hire a summer student to take the Safety Up! message to rodeos, agriculture events and other activities that attract the 17-to-25 demographic. Response so far suggests that Safety Up! is hitting home with the target audience, who will be hearing this message during 2009 and beyond. |
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