The bfu's campaign helped to increase the number of helmet-wearers on Swiss slopes (photo ©2011 Tara S. Kerpelman)
The Swiss snow sports safety campaign, “1,000 accidents a day – protect yourself with a helmet,” has received good marks: an evaluation by the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu) says the 2007-2010 marketing campaign was an overall success.
The percentage of people wearing helmets while skiing or snowboarding went up from 52 to 76 percent between 2007 and 2010, over the course of the campaign.
The bfu partnered with the Swiss Insurance Association (SVV) and Rega (Swiss air rescue) for the campaign. It argued that the main reasons skiers and snowboarders did not wear helmets were they were not conscious of the dangers involved, they thought they were not vulnerable to the dangers, or they found that helmets were too uncomfortable to wear.
The report says the campaign reduced the number of people who fit into these categories.
The increase was smaller in French-speaking Switzerland, where it went up more than 16 percentage points, than in German-speaking areas, where the increase was greater than 26 percent, the report says.
Change in the percentage of people wearing helmets (source: bfu.ch)
There was more familiarity with the bfu’s campaign over time: only 47 percent of those surveyed in 2008 had heard of the campaign but this rose to 69 percent by 2010, with a slightly more significant increase in the 18 to 25 age group, 69 percent in 2010, up from 46 percent in 2008.
The campaign was probably not the only or even main reason for the increase in helmet-wearers, the report says, but it notes that the bfu’s efforts supported and reinforced the other reasons.
These probably include more celebrities and sports stars seen with helmets and, over time a generation, following the example of those who are older who have begun to wear helmets.
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