AT&T’s 'It Can Wait' campaign: starting a movement

For years, AT&T has been advocating against texting while driving with one simple message: no text is worth a life. Last month, AT&T released a new survey that found that 49% of commuters admitted to texting while driving, compared to 43 % of teens.   Some 98% said they text and drive despite knowing that such behavior isn’t safe.  Over time, the problem has gotten worse: 6 in 10 commuters say they never texted while driving three years ago. Adults are becoming poor role models when it comes to texting while driving. So while efforts to raise awareness of the dangers of texting while driving are working, there’s clearly more work to be done to changebehaviors. It starts with each one of us. We’re calling on everyone to help end texting while driving by taking action during National Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April and beyond. We’re asking businesses, nonprofits and other groups to join the more than 165 organizations already engaged in the Texting & Driving-It Can Wait movement, and to use the policies, technologies and communications materials available free at att.com/itcanwait to help move beyond being aware of the danger to making a personal commitment not to text and drive. Through It Can Wait, we’ve reached millions with the insight that most text messages are trivial, and no text is worth dying for.  We’ve made the dangers of texting and driving real and personal by giving thousands of people hands-on experience with driving simulators and sharing the heart-wrenching stories of people – like Jamie Nash in this video – whose lives have been forever changed by texting-while-driving accidents. More than 1.3 million personal commitments never to text and drive have been made at ItCanWait.com, through Facebook, text-to-pledge, tweet-to-pledge or at events. We are immensely proud of the work we are doing to end texting while driving and encourage everyone to take the pledge, speak out and speak up about the dangers of texting while driving.  Together, we can successfully spread the word that no text is worth a life. Andrea Brands, Director of Consumer Safety and Education at AT&T, is responsible for empowering consumers with tools and information to help them use technology safely and efficiently. In this role, she leads consumer education programs that are committed to driver safety – centered around AT&T’s anti-texting-while-driving campaign, It Can Wait – and online safety, where she has developed educational outreach programs for students, parents, external organizations, communities and seniors. Editor’s note:  As part of our partnership with AT&T on distracted driving, I invited AT&T’s Consumer Education and Safety Director, Andrea Brands, to share more about the ‘It Can Wait’ campaign. This is the first in a series of guest blog posts by AT&T.