Comparison/Contrast Essay Eng101
British PSA is the best choice Although both the “British PSA” and the “AT&T PSA” use the fear of injury and death to discourage texting while driving, the British PSA is more effective than the AT&T PSA because it focuses on the details of the injury and death during the accident. Both the British PSA and the AT&T PSA show the “life changing” and “life ending” consequences that can occur when a person chooses to text while driving.
The British PSA shows a deadly multi-car crash that occurs because the texting driver crosses the centerline and hits another car head-on only due to the fact that she and her teenage passengers were distracted by a text message on her cell phone. Likewise, the AT&T PSA shows several different people whose lives have been destroyed by tragic car accidents (involving injury or death) caused by texting while driving.
Both videos show the devastating effects that texting while driving can have on the texting driver and other innocent people, but the “British PSA” is the more effective video. The AT&T PSA shows three separate storylines of people who have been affected by injury and/or death because of texting while driving. The 1st storyline is about a teenage girl who died a year earlier when she was texting while driving. The story has a policeman describing the accident scene and the victim’s family and friends describing their loss.
The 2nd storyline is about a teenage boy who killed a man on a bicycle when he was texting while driving. The 3rd storyline shows a mentally and physically disabled young man who became disabled from a car accident in which he was texting while driving. These 3 storylines bring out strong feelings in the audience of compassion for the loved ones, sadness for the injured, and concern that something like this could happen to you or your loved ones.
However, this video does not show any details of the actual accident, therefore making it difficult for the viewer to imagine this all came from just a simple text message. In contrast, The “British PSA” clip uses a dramatic approach by showing the details of a full-fledge highway multi-car accident. The clip shows the terrifying effects of a deadly head-on collision in slow motion. Immediately after the head-on collision, the car with the 3 teenage girls gets broad-sided (T-boned) by a third car travelling at a high rate of speed.
It provides a bloody and graphic example of the devastating effects that texting while driving can bring and strives to promote staying off cell phones while operating a vehicle by depicting an event that the audience would never want to live through. Instead of just showing the aftermath or the long term effects of the accident, The “British PSA” uses an approach to shock the audience and literally scare them from ever wanting to text while driving by showing the injury and death of several people involved.
The “British PSA” is more effective than the “AT&T PSA” because it allows the audience to witness the horrible details of a car accident instead of just hearing about the aftermath several months later.
Works Cited
- AT&T Don’t Text While Driving Documentary. (2010). Retrieved November 22, 2012 from http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=DebhWD6ljZs.
- PSA Texting While Driving U. K. Ad. (2009). Retrieved November 22, 2012 from http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=R0LCmStIw9E.
