#3500LIVES Campaign: Global Celebrities Unite to Urge Personal and Political Action for Safer Roads

Rafael Nadal, Pharrell Williams and Nico Rosberg are amongst the stars featured in the first ever worldwide outdoor road safety advertising campaign, launched today by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and advertising giant JCDecaux, with support from the FIA Foundation.

Named for the number of people who lose their lives in preventable road traffic crashes every day on the world’s roads, the #3500LIVES campaign unites a roster of major celebrities from sports and arts with political and religious leaders in a call for political commitment and a properly resourced UN Fund for Road Safety to meet the challenge of the Sustainable Development Goals, with a focus on safe infrastructure and vehicles. Members of the public are encouraged to support this call via a campaign website at www.fia.com/3500lives and to ‘Sign Up, Stay Safe, Save Lives’. Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who features in the campaign, says: “There is no excuse for inaction because we know how to make our roads safer. We need better infrastructure, safer vehicles and better drivers. I call for road safety to become a top priority of political agendas.”

There is also a strong emphasis on personal responsibility. The 13 celebrities* endorsing the campaign including footballer Antoine Griezmann, tennis star Rafael Nadal, F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg, sprinter Yohan Blake, and pop artist Pharrell Williams, will drive home messages on drink driving, speed, distracted driving and the importance of wearing seat belts and motorcycle helmets. Michelle Yeoh, longtime FIA Foundation ambassador and road safety advocate, and now UNDP Goodwill Ambassador for the SDGs, features in the campaign.

Translated in 30 languages, the campaign #3500LIVES is as of today live in 30 cities worldwide and will be rolled out in more than 70 countries by the end of 2017. In the launch phase, JCDecaux estimates that the campaign will be seen 1 billion times.

Speaking at the launch of the campaign at the Automobile Club de France, alongside Mayor Hidalgo; Jean-Charles Decaux, Chairman of JCDecaux; EC Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc; and the UN Special Representative for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein; the FIA’s President Jean Todt said: “I encourage everyone to promote and share the campaign’s key messages and sign our manifesto for government action. Too many people lose their life unnecessarily in road crashes daily. We are proud to have worked together with JCDecaux on this campaign, and also with 13 fantastic Ambassadors, each of which is a role model, especially for young people, the group worst affected by road crashes.”

The launch event also heard video messages in support of the campaign from His Holiness Pope Francis and Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee. Some of the celebrities involved in the campaign, including Nico Rosberg, Yohan Blake and Felipe Massa, joined by live feed. Paralympic gold medalist Vanessa Low, who lost both her legs in a transport incident, attended and spoke at the launch about the impact of her injuries and the struggle to overcome them.

The campaign marks a major output of the FIA High Level Panel for Road Safety, a coalition of business and institutional leaders convened by the FIA with funding from the FIA Foundation. As a contribution to the Panel, JCDecaux is donating space on its worldwide network of advertising installations. Jean-Charles Decaux, Chairman and Co-Director of JCDecaux, and a member of the High Level Panel, said: “External communication is at the core of all sorts of mobility and we are thrilled and proud to contribute to spread these messages around the world through the impact of our installations. This commitment is also aligned with our company’s social responsibility policy and all the JCDecaux co-workers who work on a daily basis to improve urban life quality. They are hence delighted to get involved in the promotion of road safety for citizens around the world”.

The FIA Foundation’s Chairman, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, also a member of the High Level Panel, welcomed the campaign: “We have worked hard and successfully to include road safety as an international policy priority in the Sustainable Development Goals. But now there is an urgent need to build widespread political support and public awareness if we are to turn these ambitions into real action. This #3500LIVES campaign is a vital step forward, raising the visibility of this issue and engaging the public in the call for government action and funding to build safe systems and implement life-saving legislation, but also highlighting the personal responsibility of road users to stay safe. I am proud that the FIA Foundation is partnering with the FIA and JCDecaux in this initiative.”

*The full list of #3500LIVES ambassadors: Fernando Alonso, Yohan Blake, Haile Gebreselassie, Antoine Griezmann, Anne Hidalgo, Vanessa Low, Marc Marquez, Felipe Massa, Rafael Nadal, Nico Rosberg, Wayde van Niekerk, Michelle Yeoh, Pharrell Williams.

Read more about the #3500LIVES campaign at www.fia.com/3500lives

Learn more about the FIA Foundation’s wide-ranging portfolio of road safety advocacy and programmes