Be Car Chic

BY Liza Smith, Automotive Ads Contributor | @Homadge Above the “fold,” the ad below could be for almost anything; however, look closely at the text in the following green speech bubbles. The ads are simple, written just like last minute text messages would be typed (can you find the misspelling?), but they do the trick. PUT YOUR PHONES [...]

Following the announcement that Cellcontrol and Esurance will provide teenagers a benefit for taking action to drive distraction-free, I wanted to know more about the technology behind the solution. The companies are teaming up to give teenage driving policy holders a free Cellcontrol unit free of charge. I caught up with Cellcontrol CEO, Robert Guba, [...]

BY Liza Smith, Automotive Ads Contributor | @Homadge The line (from focusdriven.org): “Nothing you have to say is that important.” This art direction is so powerful. No smiley faces here… Credits: Advertising Agency: Team One, El Segundo, USA Creative Director: Chris Graves Art Director: Steve Hanlon Copywriter: Phil Henson Photographer: Sam Comen Digital Artist: Ban Tat Published: [...]

Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile are officially joining AT&T and its ‘It Can Wait’ anti-texting while driving campaign. The leading wireless carriers, among more than 200 other organizations, have joined forces to support a multi-million dollar advertising blitz that aims to curb this bad behavior once and for all. Be Car Chic has supported AT&T’s effort [...]

BY Matthew C. Keegan | Editor, Auto Trends Magazine Are elderly drivers unduly called out for their behind-the-wheel antics? Some may think so, but a recently published university study reveals that there is some truth and much concern about the way some elderly drivers comport themselves while driving. Distracted driving by novice drivers may indicate cell [...]

National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) will be joined today by federal, foundation and corporate leaders from around the country to kick of Global Youth Traffic Safety Month. Global Youth Traffic Safety Month (GYTSM) aims to empower youth to engage in traffic safety projects in their communities. The month-long campaign celebrates and highlights the work being [...]

A friend passed along an article from Australian publication The Age, where transport reporter Adam Carey highlights a recent study on distracted driving and the impacts this behavior has on drivers in Victoria. Upon reading the article, my reaction was “We’re not the only ones dealing with the realities of this issue.” I encourage you [...]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently brought together stakeholders at its first-ever distracted driving symposium. We just wrapped up National Distracted Awareness Month, but the turn of a calendar page doesn’t have to mean you forget the importance of this issue. Check out this quick video I recorded for Rob Richardson of DRIVE SMART Virginia, a [...]

BY Liza Smith, Automotive Ads Contributor | @Homadge “Delete Text Driving” is the final copy in the ad below called “Windscreen” (produced by Leo Burnett Chicago a few years ago). This commercial is so powerful that I think about it whenever I see Melanie’s #DFF posts. I’m sharing it with you so it can make an impact [...]

Editor’s note:  As part of our partnership with AT&T on distracted driving, I invited AT&T’s Consumer Education and Safety Director, Andrea Brands, to share more about the ‘It Can Wait’ campaign. This is the first in a series of guest blog posts by AT&T. Enjoy. BY Andrea Brands | Director, Consumer Education and Safety at [...]

Today, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood released visual-manual distraction guidelines for automobile manufacturers to limit drivers’ distraction risk connected to electronic devices already built into their vehicles, including original-equipment communication, entertainment and navigation features in the car’s center stack. “Distracted driving is a deadly epidemic that has devastating consequences on our nation’s roadways,” said Secretary LaHood [...]

The 40th anniversary of the mobile phone and the beginning of Distracted Driver Awareness Month coincided at the start of April. It got Andrew Stoy, digital editor of autoweek.com, thinking about how cars and the mobile phone are changing everything. Originally meant to provide convenience, the combination is proving deadly for some drivers. The following is an elaboration of [...]

Did you know that you’re 23 times more likely to crash your car when texting and driving? Those are pretty high odds for any driver. Now think about a novice driver, who has logged few hours behind the wheel, staring that statistic in the face. In a 2011 survey of 6,000 young drivers over the [...]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will showcase technologies that help curb distracted driving at a symposium today, Friday, April 19. The agency’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau is putting on the event as part of its ongoing campaign against distracted behind-the-wheel behavior. The event is open to both the media and the public, so swing [...]

BY Liza Smith, Automotive Ads Contributor | @Homadge Hello to all the distraction-free drivers reading this post. If for some weird reason you’re not on board to ditch the distractions, I encourage you to check out ItCanWait.com. While I’ll be sharing some distraction-free advertising over the next few weeks, I wanted to start these posts with [...]

In 2011, I began the distracted driving conversation here as part of National Distracted Driving Awareness month. At that time, President Obama had signed an executive order on the matter and 31 states, including D.C. and Guam, had introduced legislation or adopted laws on distracted driving. So what has changed in that time? Today, 39 [...]

Continuing the conversation from our post about whether teens find driving drunk more dangerous than texting while driving, a new infographic from Allstate Insurance shows some stats that may prove the opposite. Texters are three times slower to react than even buzzed drivers Research has shown that drivers who text while behind the wheel are [...]

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and the blog is back with its Third Annual Distraction Free Fridays campaign. Again, I will ask you, your friends and family to ‘put the device aside and focus on the drive’. Be Car Chic readers and my peers understand just how seriously I take distracted driving.Every Friday for [...]

It’s the second Friday of 2013. By now, many of us have already failed some of our New Year’s resolutions. That’s OK. The way I look at resolutions is that if you make a misstep, tomorrow is a new day to try again. We can’t change our habits overnight. This way of thinking is not [...]

Have you ever driven while sleepy and barely able to keep your eyelids propped open? Have you ever been so tired that no matter how many Red Bull energy drinks or cups of Dunkin’ Donuts you drank you were still exhausted – and then you had to make a long road trip? Well, you’re not [...]