The Transport Accident Commission (TAC), in partnership with Thinkerbell, has launched a powerful new road safety initiative aimed at reframing the nation’s perception of risk on our roads.
Titled ‘Australia’s Deadliest Predator’, the campaign takes the form of an integrated public experience combining a physical installation, immersive audio, social video, and radio.
The project comes to life as a large-scale public exhibit in Melbourne’s CBD that mimics a zoo enclosure. But instead of a fearsome animal, visitors encounter the wreckage of a car destroyed in a speed-related crash. This draws attention to the fact that Australia’s deadliest predator is in fact a speeding car, killing far more people in Australia than snakes, sharks, or crocodiles combined.
The work has been completed on a project basis and comes amid an open tender process for the TAC creative account. B&T understands that Clemenger, DDB Melbourne, TBWA and Ogilvy are a part of the pitch process and that Thinkerbell would be open to working more broadly on the account.
An accompanying immersive audio experience, accessible on-site or via personal devices, guides listeners through the chilling reality of how a small speed increase can spiral into tragedy. People will also experience the project across multiple other touchpoints, asking people to consider Australia’s greatest predator.
Between 2001 and 2021, six Australians died each year on average due to deadly animals. By contrast, speeding has claimed more than 400 lives annually, totalling 4100 deaths in the past decade alone.
Despite the data, TAC-commissioned research found a dangerous perception gap: nearly 75 per cent of Australians fear snakes, but only 11 per cent believe driving 5 km/h over the limit is extremely dangerous.
“Australia’s Deadliest Predator is a bold initiative that compares speeding fatalities to deaths caused by dangerous wildlife, encouraging Australians to rethink what they fear the most,” said TAC head of community, Jacqui Sampson:
“We are showing up differently to connect Victorians to the real dangers of speeding and challenge the relaxed mentality that ‘just a little bit over the limit’ is OK. We are all in control of our behaviours on the road and have an absolute obligation to keep ourselves and others safe.”
“We wanted to hold a mirror up to the public’s irrational fears. People panic about snakes and sharks, yet shrug at doing 10km/h over. From exhibit to earbud to screen, it’s a multi-sensory intervention against complacency,” said Tom Wenborn, chief creative at Thinkerbell.
“Humans are hardwired to fear dramatic, visible threats—like sharks, snakes, or crocodiles—because our brains evolved to react to immediate and vivid dangers. But when it comes to everyday risks like speeding cars, we tend to underestimate the danger,” said Adam Ferrier, psychologist and chief thinker at Thinkerbell.
This is a classic case of the availability heuristic: we worry about what’s most memorable, not what’s most likely. Behavioural science shows us that to shift behaviour, we need to make the invisible visible—so Australians can start seeing speeding not just as a statistic, but as the country’s deadliest predator.”
The Australia’s Deadliest Predator enclosure is open to the public from August 20–24 outside the Melbourne Museum.
Credits:
Creative agency: Thinkerbell
Client: TAC
Activation Production: Graffiti
Audio Production: Eardrum
Film Production: Thinkerbell
