Motorbike Helmets for Kid's in Vietnam? Not yet.

A few years ago Vietnam finally passed a law requiring motorbike riders to wear a helmet but this law only required them for adult riders. Kids don't need them. Is somebody kidding somebody? We could blame the lawmakers for not seeing the fatalities and injuries amongst children but that shouldn't release parents from their basic responsibilities to protect those children should it? I didn't think so. And so an idea was hatched (yeah, bad pun) to do a public service campaign to speak to parents about the importance of the whole family wearing a helmet. In a country of what might be easily, 30 million motorbikes for roughly 80 million people the motorbike is a way of life in Vietnam. In fact it's an extension of life, an extra limb it has been called. But it's also a way of death, the highest rate of highway fatalities in Asia before enactment of the law.

On launch day, the government deployed 5000 police around the city (Saigon) to enforce strict fines ($10 is strict here) and lo and behold - one day nobody had a helmet and the next day they did. Except for the children. And this baffled the crap out of me. Didn't the people understand that a not fully formed skull can be crushed up to 60% easier than an adult's? Didn't they see it as important? And the answer is, 'no they didn't'. What was important to them was not paying a fine to comply with the law. Sad, I thought. No thought about the reasons one should wear a helmet at all.

Ask anyone what they believe to be a symbol of birth and childhood and you will eventually hear the word 'egg'. So I took that visual and put a helmet on it. It was funny. And it worked. We all know eggs crack easily and putting a helmet on them just reinforced the point. Photographer Mads Monsen and I worked together to create this campaign and we did it without a specific client in mind - because we thought the idea was important. Should you know of any organization in Vietnam who might be interested in running this work as a public service, please contact me. We would love to get this campaign up and running and doing the job the parents should be doing - getting all their kids to wear a helmet.

D a v i d E v e r i t t - C a r l s o n

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Find me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Read my previous blog: The Wild Wild East Dailies.

I love Seth Godin - But he doesn't know much about Asia

His latest post, 'Are You Buying an Education or Buying a Brand?"  says:

It's reported that student debt in the USA is approaching a trillion dollars, five times what it was ten years ago. Are those in debt buying more education or are they seeking better branding in the form of coveted diplomas?

And that's insane because there's another reason. Doesn't he understand that Asian students are filling up the classrooms in the US, England and Australia left by declining student populations in the West - and that the hallmarks of an ascriptive society are replacing those in America previously based on achievement? And students and parents are more more interested in buying a 'brand'? Most Asian students live in cloistered housing, only deal with their own culture, and many learn little or nothing of the actual subjects - but once that degree is on their CV, they come back to Asia and get hired like fish in an employment net that looks for letters and brand names over any real accomplishment. Could someone please tell me where Steve Jobs went to school? I don't want to go there!

For the record, Seth Godin graduated from Tufts University and received his MBA from Stanford (both strong educational brands). Steve Jobs attended but dropped out of Reed College in Portland Oregon. He has never received a formal degree in any subject.

D a v i d E v e r i t t - C a r l s o n

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Find me on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Read my previous blog: The Wild Wild East Dailies.