The German government spent around $450,000 on a bike helmet campaign built around the line “Looks like shit. But saves my life.”
The idea was to go directly after one of the reasons young people weren’t wearing helmets: they thought they looked stupid. So instead of pretending helmets are cool, the campaign basically says, yeah, they look like shit. Wear one anyway.
Then they photographed a bunch of nearly naked models wearing them.
I actually really like the idea. I just wish they’d committed to it more. If you’re going to sell bike helmets with sex appeal, make the photos sexy. A lot of these feel more like awkward fashion photography than anything actually hot, which makes the whole thing a little cringy.
Still, “Looks like shit. But saves my life.” is a pretty great line.
