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This chapter defines what road safety advertising campaigns are and the objectives that they typically seek to achieve. The argument put forward in this chapter is that when theoretically informed in their design and sensitive to the array of potential personal, social, and cultural influences which may be at play, road safety advertising can contribute to both reinforcing and transforming contemporary traffic safety culture. This chapter offers guidance to researchers and practitioners in the field regarding relevant theory which may be applied to inform message design and evaluation.

Drawing upon the Traffic Safety Culture (TSC) perspective, this chapter outlines the reinforcing and transforming functions of advertising and illustrates such approaches by drawing upon examples from Australian road safety advertising campaigns. The argument put forth is that road safety advertising can be a robust tool; it can reinforce other countermeasures (enforcement) as well as transform community expectations and values and thus ultimately contribute to social as well as behavioral change.