Despite the complaints being rejected by the Advertising Standards Authority, London Safety Camera Partnership has decided not to use the direct mail creative again.
The campaign targeted 17- to 24-year-olds with Valentine's cards bearing the message "For my Girlfriend", sent out in the week before Valentine's Day. Inside, the cards read "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill you, I was driving too fast", opposite a photograph of a crashed, overturned car.
The people who complained said they were upset by the mailing, but the ASA judged that it was clear that the mailing was part of an official campaign and not personal, and was unlikely to cause widespread offence.
LSCP also ran the direct mail campaign, intended to reduce road fatalities, last year. It was originally conceived by another road safety body in East Anglia for a 2001 pilot and won a road safety award. An LSCP spokesman said that the direct mail creative was developed by Stennik, an East Anglian communications agency.
LSCP has used other media including radio and face-to-face marketing apparently without complaint.
The LSCP spokesman said that the partnership would develop new creative for the next phase of its ongoing campaign, working with Transport for London's marketing department.
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