Steven Potter
With all the screens, signs and spam in our lives, it’s easy to miss a message — especially public service announcements.
Knowing that, the UW-Madison Police Department snuck a pop culture reference into a traffic safety announcement board on campus this morning for drivers heading west on University Avenue.
In between the commonplace notices of “Click-It or Ticket” and “Seat Belt Enforcement Statewide” is the message: “Zombieland Rule #4: Seat Belts.”
UWPD director of communications Marc Lovicott hopes the unorthodox message gets people’s attention.
“We're always looking for ways to share unique messages. We live in a world now where we have to compete for people's attention — and ‘buckle up’ is a message we've heard time and time again,” he says. “We don't pay attention to those messages like we did years ago. So this is a way for us to get through that clutter and get attention. We do that all the time on social media. We're competing against so many others out there.”
The “Zombieland Rule” references the the popular movie starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Bill Murray. They play a crew of misfits fighting their way across a zombie-infested America, using a set of rules to stay alive.
Lovicott confesses that he hasn’t seen it. “A UWPD officer came up with the idea, and, knowing how popular Zombieland was, we thought it was a great, fun way to get a common message across,” he says. “Even if you don't know the reference, the word ‘zombie’ should get your attention.”
