Volvo cars are widely regarded as safe. But in this male-dominated world, the automaker wants to make sure that women also feel safe in its cars – not just men. Various studies have already proved that female drivers are more likely to get injured or even killed in a car crash. Yet, if they chose to drive a Volvo, things can positively change. How, might you ask? Well, the Swedish car manufacturer just released a crash test data “to make cars safer for all,” even for the ladies.
The car brand got behind the wheel with creative agency Forsman & Bodenfors and launched a global campaign titled E.V.A. Initiative, which stands for Equal Vehicles for All. Volvo Cars uses this campaign to share its findings which were discovered after 40 years of intense research. It all started five decades ago, in 1970, and since then, the Volvo team has gathered, analyzed, and processed data from more than 40,000 cars and 70,000 passengers. This allowed the company to develop a lot of innovative systems it has included in its cars until this day and age.
Women hop in into their cars thinking they will be as safe as men. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Most automakers produce vehicles based on data from male crash test dummies. This is why ladies have a higher risk of getting injured in a crash than men. Yet, things take a positive turn when we speak about not just the latest Volvo cars.
The brand’s Accident Research Team has been compiling data since the ’70 to better understand and figure out what happens during an accident. For Volvo, women and men are equal in this research, so the brand believes that they should be represented equally when undergoing testing with dummies. With E.V.A., the company hopes to make its cars safer even for the ‘gentler gender’.
As part of the initiative, the Gothenburg-based agency designed a printed ad that reveals the chances of getting injured in a car crash. The clever print can analyze all that based just on the size of your hand. Whilst most crash test dummies are molded after the looks of an average male, the hand inside the ad is based on these same measurements.
For example, if your hand doesn’t fit within the print, you may be more likely to get injured in a car accident. According to the brand, this is the ugly truth that lies behind the male-dominated world of crash tests. But thanks to Volvo’s research, the brand can better learn what injuries arise in different accidents for men, women, and children.
The print will be visible in Sweden’s biggest newspapers such as Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet, Göteborgs-Posten, and more. “With more than a million people globally dying in road crashes every year, this ad literally puts the finger on one of the big problems the world is facing. The work Volvo Cars does to tackle the problem, highlighting that women risk being injured to a higher degree than men, is truly admirable,” said Leo Dal, one of the creatives behind the campaign at Forsman & Bodenfors in Gothenburg, Sweden.
By sharing this campaign, Volvo Cars hopes to improve gender equality throughout all cars. Plus, the brand wants to push other automakers to borrow its recipe and produce cars that are safe for everyone, be they women, men, or kids. People should always be put first, says the brand.