AT&T starts ‘No text is worth dying over' ad campaign

By Kristi E. Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Liliburn man may have had his thumbs on his cell phone instead of his eyes on the road when he ran a stoplight in Alabama in January.

Six days before that, a man, who was texting while driving, crashed his Acura into a telephone pole.

And then there’s Caleb Sorohan, who was driving home for Christmas after his first semester at college. Reports say he picked up the phone to text his girlfriend and slammed into a truck.

What was the last message you sent or received on your mobile phone?

Would sending that message be worth causing a serious car accident?

That’s the crux of AT&T Mobility’s no-texting-while-driving advertising campaign, launched by the company this week.

The ad’s message, “No text is worth dying over,” is part of a national campaign that includes text messages that people sent or received before they were in a serious accident or killed, AT&T said.

“ … we asked one of our focus groups to take our their [mobile] devices and read the last text they received. When we asked if that particular message was worth the potential risk of reading while driving at 65 miles an hour, you could have heard a pin drop,” said Cathy Coughlin, a senior executive vice president for AT&T.

The campaign’s tagline is “Txting & Driving … It Can Wait.”

AT&T is targeting teens and younger drivers, while acknowledging that the ad campaign is for everyone.

Georgia is one of several states with proposed laws to ban texting while driving. Other wireless companies, such as Verizon, have been out there promoting a don’t text while driving message.

AT&T is based in Dallas. Its wireless unit, AT&T Mobility is headquartered in Atlanta.