SMS text messaging is slowly taking over the world, with North America catching up with the Europeans in how many texts they send on a daily basis. But there is a downside, with injuries galore apparently resulting from people texting on their mobile phones. The solution: How about padded lampposts?

I’ve checked, and no, this isn’t April 1st, and we’re not being taken for fools, or at least I hope not. Although we could just be falling for a viral marketing campaign by British directory enquiries service 118118.

According to VNUnet, 118118 commissioned a survey in to injuries sustained while people were texting on their mobile phones. They asked 1,000 people in the UK if they had suffered an injury from a collision while sending an SMS, and the unbelievable result came back that 1 in 10 had.

What’s more, the survey found that almost two thirds of responders had lost peripheral vision while texting, and over 25% actually wanted lines on the pavement to create routes for texters to walk while using their phones.

I’m British myself, so I don’t want anyone suggesting that the Brits are stupid, and would be the only nation to come up with that proportion of idiots, so this must be a worldwide problem. 118118 has the solution though, and is teaming up charity organisation Living Streets to put it in to action.

Brick Lane, a street in East London, is soon to become the first street in the UK to have padded lampposts. And all to stop the supposed 1 in 10 Brits who bang in to them, and end up sustaining an injury. What has the world come to?

The charity has said that if this trial is successful, the scheme will then be rolled out to other London streets including Charing Cross Road, Old Bond Street and Oxford Street.

So what’s the catch? Apart from the UK looking like a bunch of blind idiots? Well, as part of the deal for providing the padding, 118118 will be allowed to advertise on the lampposts. Ah, so there we have it, the crux of the matter.

Regardless of whether the survey was accurate or not, this basically comes down to being a viral marketing campaign. I take my hat off to 118118 though, they’ve excelled themselves this time.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, March 8th, 2008 at 2:47 pm under Cell phones, Health, Opinion.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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