I’m always interested in creative advertising campaigns. Whether it’s a high quality Super Bowl ad or a creative PR stunt, when marketing folks move past the standard used car 30 second commercials and actually come up with something creative, it always makes me notice. While normally, I think most creative campaigns are a good thing, the Red Cross has a new ad campaign that may push the boundries of good taste.

The ad itself is a public awareness campaign to help people realize that they need to know how to conduct first aid. To highlight the importance of first aid training, they have started placing life sized decals of injured people at the base of stairs. From far away the people look like they’ve fallen down the stairs and need assistance, but as you move closer you’ll see that it’s just a decal. While getting someone’s heart racing is probably a good way of impressing the importance of knowing first aid on someone, I can’t help but wonder how long it will actually take until someone either trips themselves coming to the rescue of a fake body or until someone has a heart attack from seeing a fellow human in distress. Whille I applaud the creativity of the campaign, it’s use of scare tactics is certain to upset more then a few would be good Samaritans.