Be Scary, Be Safe: Keep children visible on the roads this Halloween with Volvo LifePaint
Retail roll-out of unique reflective safety spray ideal for illuminating Halloween costumes
Halloween is meant to be scary. But it should also be safe. Every year, as the days grow shorter and the hours of darkness increase, road casualties rise. Halloween is especially dangerous — with twice the number of children on UK roads, it is the third-most dangerous day of the year when it comes to car accidents.
In time for 31 October, car marque Volvo Car UK launches Be Scary, Be Safe, an initiative aimed at ensuring trick-or-treating kids are visible at night using its unique reflective safety spray Volvo LifePaint.
Volvo LifePaint is a highly reflective spray aimed at increasing the visibility of vulnerable road users. Invisible by daylight, it glows brightly in the glare of car headlights, making the invisible visible at night. Be Scary, Be Safe encourages parents to spray their children’s costumes with LifePaint before they go trick-or-treating this Halloween. While safety is the responsibility of all road users, LifePaint can at least play a part in ensuring that despite dark and scary costumes, children are highly visible to all drivers. The paint is non-toxic and can be easily washed off at the end of the night.
But being safe does not come at the detriment to being scary: Volvo are also releasing a set of spooky Halloween spray stencils, allowing kids to adorn their outfits with reflective skeletons. The set of stencils can be downloaded for free at www.volvocars.com/uk/about/our-innovations/lifepaint, while parents can purchase LifePaint from their local Volvo dealership. To find your nearest dealership, visit: http://www.volvocars.com/uk/find-a-dealer. LifePaint is available at cost price, ensuring it is as easily available as possible and that Volvo makes no profit on its sale.
The initiative comes amidst the much-anticipated retail rollout of LifePaint, which was launched on a trial basis to global media attention in April 2015. Volvo has secured a partnership with Swedish start-up Albedo100, manufacturers of the product, to distribute LifePaint through its global dealer network. The product is now listed in Volvo’s spare parts catalogue (#40005923) — meaning any Volvo dealership in the world can now order it for retail.
LifePaint was initially trialled in six London-based cycle shops, where 2,000 cans were given away free of charge. As this initial release was so successful, Volvo Car UK decided to roll this out nationally. As well as the UK, the product is now publicly available in Canada and New Zealand, with Denmark, Finland, Norway, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Thailand all set to roll-out soon.
Volvo has always been synonymous with safety, inventing the three-point seat belt in 1959 and then opening up the patent so that any car manufacturer could use it. Continuing this innovation, LifePaint was developed with creative agency Grey London and Swedish start-up Albedo100, taking Volvo safety beyond its cars.
The move to supply the Swedish-designed spray comes as the latest part of Volvo’s Vision 2020 — the concept that that no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo by 2020.
Wiktor Skoog, Strategic Design Director, Grey London, says: “LifePaint aims to protect vulnerable road users, and children certainly fall into that bracket — especially as it gets dark earlier it’s a time when statistically the chance of an accident occurring are higher. Public reaction to LifePaint has been extremely positive, and we’ve worked hard alongside Volvo and Albedo100 to ensure it’s widely available at the lowest possible price.”
Georgina Williams, Head of Marketing, Volvo Car UK Ltd adds: “The reaction to the trial of LifePaint in April was phenomenal. We’re glad we’ve been able to secure a deal that satisfies consumer demand for the product and that we can play a part in making vulnerable road users more visible.”
The AA added: “At this time of the year, with the clocks moved back, early evenings on the roads can be particularly dangerous for all road users. This is especially the case on Halloween when there are lots of children about. Volvo’s Life Paint is a great idea and a fun way to help vulnerable road users improve their conspicuity and help them stay safe. Dark evenings are not just for Halloween so this product offers great potential to help certain road users stay conspicuous on the roads during the winter months when daylight is in short supply.”
Notes to editors:
Volvo Cars LifePaint is a reflective safety spray that is invisible by daylight, but spray reflects light in the same direction as the light source — shining brightly and alerting drivers to a cyclist’s presence.
LifePaint is designed to be used on fabric and textiles. A single spray on a surface can last up to a fortnight and washes off without affecting the colour or damaging a treated surface.
The move to supply the Swedish designed spray comes as the latest part of Volvo’s Vision 2020 — the concept that that no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo by 2020. It comes as the car maker has introduced a market-leading Intellisafe pedestrian and cyclist detection system. Intellisafe uses a combination of radar sensors and cameras to identify other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists and automatically brake if the driver fails to take the necessary action.
