You Crash, We Ad

Where would the world be without a good deal of irony? Crashvertise is a humorous, unconventional way of advertising in public space founded in Italy by KOOK Artgency. Under the slogan “You crash, we ad”, the initiators claim to turn every car crash into the perfect medium for a brand to successfully spread a message.

The idea is simple. Whenever a road accident happens, a Crashvertise team is sent immediately to the spot, showing an advertising campaign on large scale posters and giving away safety vests with a brand’s logo to all the people involved in the road accident. Furthermore, “a special warning triangle with your brand message is located near the cars”, and “gadgets or other advertising stuff are given away to people in the area”. No-one looks at billboards nowadays, so why not grab the attention of all those distaster tourists? Or, in the words of the Crashvertisers, “why stage complicated and expensive car crash scenes while it is possible to take advantage of thousands of road accidents?”.

Whenever a road accident takes place, advertisers can send the address and a picture of the road accident through Facebook or Twitter (#crashvertise), after which a Crashvertise team will go to the spot. Reports of advertising campaigns are evaluated on a revenue sharing method to let witnesses increase earnings or people involved in the crash cover damage costs. According to the initiators Crashvertising has numerous benefits for brands, such as “direct engagement of bystanders and motorists” and “involvement in events that always generate word-of-mouth”. Check out the video below to learn more about Crashvertise.

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