SA Ambulance Service: Hands Off Our Ambos

Despite rising violence against South Australian Ambulance Officers (Ambos), research revealed that the general public didn't consider it to be a real issue. They could not believe that anyone would assault an Ambo who was trying to save a life. Showpony, Adelaide challenge was to raise public awareness by making the unbelievable, believable. To achieve this we didn’t make an ad, we created an ‘incident’. There were no scripts. Actors were simply given a context. Their performances were driven by instinct and emotion. The paramedics were real. Their reactions were based on first hand experience. This incident was captured on an iPhone4, in a single take. No edits, no treatments. The video wasn’t launched. It was simply posted on a Facebook page in a plain vertical format without any paid support. Within 48 hours it had been viewed over 750,000 times that’s half of SA's population. It was shared over 14,000 times. Comments poured in by the thousands as the public engaged with the video, not as an ad, but as a social issue. The video was also picked up national news agencies and endorsed by Government. Most importantly, violent incidents against paramedics have decreased by 42%. In the end, we didn’t just make people aware, we made them care.