Bizarre Japanese bubble-wrap ad aims to encourage the use of turn signals

By Trevor Mogg April 20, 2017

日本一ウインカーを出さない県の驚きの安全策とは・・・？Bubblepack Town

Do you always use your turn signals when you’re out in your car? Research released this week suggests that 76 percent of drivers in the United States always use their blinkers when turning or making a maneuver, 16 percent usually use them, and 8 percent use them half the time or less.

The survey also found that 88 percent of drivers feel annoyed when others fail to signal at the appropriate time.

Proper use of turn signals is an issue for road users pretty much everywhere, including in Japan. Drivers in the prefecture of Okayama, about 300 miles west of Tokyo, are apparently the worst offenders in the country, prompting the Okayama branch of car dealership Toyopet to launch a campaign to encourage better blinker behavior.

Spotted by Japan-based Twitter user Mulboyne, a video posted online this month imagines a world where the only way to protect people and property from the carnage caused by poor signaling is to put bubble wrap around absolutely everyone and everything.

Toyopet

Toyopet

The ad shows a guy moving to a new home in “Bubblepack Town” in Okayama. The new arrival is understandably shocked to discover that everything’s covered in the air-filled plastic sheets, though it soon becomes apparent why.

Chaos on the streets ensues, with drivers turning without warning, mowing down pedestrians, confusing cyclists, and generally irritating the bejeezus out of everyone in the neighborhood. Although in Bubblepack Town they all seem rather happy, thanks mainly to their protective wrapping.

While it’s not yet clear if the ad will have any success in encouraging Okayama drivers to flick their turn signals next time they’re tootling around in their motor, it may at least help to boost sales of bubble wrap in the country.

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Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

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