A video clip featuring an 'invisible' moonwalking bear that has stealthily grown to be an internet hit has been revealed as a subtle road safety campaign planted by London transport officials.
The minute-long film called simply Awareness Test has caught out millions of viewers on the video-sharing website YouTube and other sites. It has been watched more than 10 million times. It begins by asking the viewer to count the number of passes in a short basketball game, relying on the fact that as the eye concentrates on the ball moving quickly between the players it can completely miss a man dressed in a bear suit who moonwalks across the screen. The viewer is told about the bear and shown the clip again, followed by the road safety message 'Look out for Cyclists'.
'The point is that we shock people. They're shocked to realise they would miss a great bear walking right across the screen in front of them; sometimes they miss it the second time too, and it makes them think how easy it can be to miss a cyclist on the road when you're watching for other things like cars or road signs,' said a Transport for London (TfL) spokesman. 'It's a compelling message and we're delighted at the number of hits.'
The clip was played in cinemas across the UK for a week before being transferred to the internet eight months ago to let 'viral marketing' take its course. 'The idea is to reach new people with new messages. We want to make sure that we're promoting road safety to the audiences we need to reach and that's not just TV and newspapers any more but networking sites and digital media,' the spokesman said.
London has seen road safety for pedestrians and motorists improve dramatically over the past decade, but cycling accidents remain high with one cyclist killed or seriously injured every day on the capital's roads. Road safety experts believe drivers still don't look out for bikes. Psychologist Professor Cary Cooper, of the University of Lancaster, said: 'If you are encouraged to concentrate on detail, you tend to miss the periphery.
'In this case, if you just sit back and watch the whole screen you will see the moonwalking bear, but if you are counting the passes you cannot pick it up. This is a common psychological phenomenon. It's quite possible that if you are concentrating very hard on what someone is saying, for example, afterwards you will have no recollection of what they were wearing.
'This concept is particularly relevant for drivers if you are focusing too much on certain aspects and can't see cyclists - when driving you have to be aware of everything around you. Of course, it's particularly surprising when you miss something as profound as a moonwalking bear. People just can't believe that, and of course they are rightly shocked.'
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, a keen cyclist, said he was pleased at the apparent success of the campaign: 'London is a terrific city for cycling and is generally safe, but the greatest danger to cyclists is complacency and that is why such safety campaigns are so important,' he explained.
'I want our city to be a cyclists' paradise. That is why reducing accidents is a priority and I hope this campaign will contribute to that aim.'
With so many people now aware of the trick behind the moonwalking bear, TfL has moved on to another clip that is just starting to take off with a few thousand hits since it arrived on YouTube last week. This time we will leave it to you to spot the trick in the film - a short video in the style of an Agatha Christie whodunnit.
Both clips were made for TfL by advertising agency WCRS. Fergus Adam of WCRS said that, while they were delighted at the phenomenal success of the moonwalking bear, this was not the future of advertising.
'This kind of viral marketing has really peaked already and is on the decline, for all sorts of reasons; people are far less likely to pass on funny or interesting clips to friends or colleagues and there are fewer and fewer things that can get this kind of worldwide spread through the web,' he said. 'Only 5 per cent of web users are actively spreading these things. YouTube is littered with videos just sitting there.'
• To view the videos, go to youtube.com and search for 'Awareness Test' and 'Test Your Awareness: Whodunnit?'
