“Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.”
Anthony de Mello, SJ
With awareness come responsibility and choice.
Amanda Lindhout
What does it mean to you when someone says, “It is National Brain Injury Awareness Month or National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, or National Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month? Do you want everyone to become aware of these issues or do you want everyone to do something about these issues? We have Alcohol Awareness Month; do we really need to become aware of alcohol? Everyone I know is aware of alcohol. Is there anyone you know who is not? I can understand if the issue is brand new, and people really are not aware of the problem but most of these issues have been around for years and years. I cannot believe we still are not aware of them.
My concern with the term "awareness" is that it often conveys a passive understanding rather than a call to action. When we say this month, the focus is on raising awareness about distracted driving, heart disease, cancer, and COPD, the message seems to stop there—encouraging mere acknowledgment without prompting any meaningful action. As an activist, I find this approach disheartening, as it misses the vital opportunity to inspire change and drive real solutions. I want to tell them how to prevent or stop this behavior. While awareness campaigns can increase knowledge and change attitudes, research suggests that they are not always effective in changing behavior or leading to real-world improvements which should be our priority, especially when our mission is crash prevention. We need to move beyond just raising awareness, we need to act. We need to craft campaigns and our messaging to get people to change how they feel, think or act. We need to create long-lasting change.
We were able to do that with drunk driving and I do not ever remember using the word awareness. I wanted to stop drunk driving and hold drunk drivers accountable even though it was a new issue in 1980 as far as the public was concerned, I still don’t ever remember saying to the press, the public or in our direct mail, I want you to be aware that my daughter was killed by a drunk driver. Period. Instead, we gave people proactive things to do to keep themselves and their loved ones safe and keep drunk drivers off the roads.
I have been giving this some thought over the past several months and I would like to suggest another way of thinking. It is simple, change the focus to be more action oriented and rethink the title of the campaign. We should consider transforming National Motorcycle Month into National Wear a Helmet Month. This change would emphasize the critical importance of helmet safety, encouraging riders to protect themselves and reduce the risk of serious injuries on the road. By focusing on helmet usage, we can promote a culture of safety and responsibility among motorcyclists.
Lastly, I want to address National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, which is in April. On the We Save Lives website, we prefer to refer to it as Stop Distracted Driving Month. Isn’t that the core action we want people to take? This phrase encapsulates our mission perfectly. We are currently rebranding the term "awareness" on the We Save Lives website, especially the homepage because we are rebranding all awareness months to reflect a more action-oriented approach.
While I may no longer have connections at NHTSA, I urge anyone from that organization who reads this to reconsider the renaming of these campaigns, as there are several that could benefit from a fresh perspective. Additionally, if anyone has alternative suggestions for these campaigns, please share them with us. We are open to seriously considering innovative ideas moving forward.
Thank you.
Candace Lighter, Activist and Founder,
We Save Lives
Mothers Against Drunk Driving