It’s hard to get people to admit that they’re vulnerable. Let alone talk about it.

But in the face of a rising road toll and public apathy, the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) for the state of Victoria, Australia, sought to educate the public about the human body’s physical vulnerability to the forces of a crash.

‘Shocking’ people with yet another car crash wouldn’t cut it. A new approach was needed.

We learnt the human body has evolved to survive impact forces of up to 30km/h: a speed our own two feet can take us to. Yet technology has outstripped our ability to evolve. The human form can’t cope with the forces we face in modern-day mobility.

We asked ourselves, what should we look like if we could survive a crash on the roads?

The answer was ‘Graham’.

Part art-piece, part science-lesson, and a catalyst for conversation about vulnerability.

‘Graham’ was created by an artist, a crash investigator and trauma surgeon. These specialists drew from insight and experience to deliver a piece of art underpinned by evidence. Eight different body parts were redesigned with each new feature housing a lesson on how the body experiences trauma.

With limited media budget, ‘Graham’ was revealed to the world through the news, generating fame and driving an engaged audience to learn more.

An educational website allowed people to delve deeper into each design change, and ‘Graham’ could be visited in real-life where people could ‘get under his skin’ through Google Tango AR.

‘Graham’ then went on to tour 7 regional Victorian towns meeting at-risk locals and the next generation of drivers.

On launch ‘Graham’ struck a nerve. In just 24 hours he had been seen on every Australian news program, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, and Huffington Post.

Such attention resulted in 1.9 million website visits from 186 countries, over 33 million video views, 80,000 shares and 2,500 individual news stories.

Beyond the hype, he made a lasting impact on the Victorian public.

- Earned 580 local broadcast stories

- Cumulative reach of 5.27m Victorians (population size 5.94m)

- 98.6% favourable coverage (10 points above benchmark)

- Global impression figure of 1.2b and AU$29m earned media coverage (AVE)

- Over 80,000 measured visitors to see ‘Graham’ ‘in person’

- 66% recognition (held at 50% long after the hype died down)

- 89% believed this was an important lesson to be reminded of

- Made significant shifts to perceptions of speed danger

- Helped contribute to a lower road toll in 2016/7 amongst other efforts

But the true value of Graham isn’t just in the impact he had immediately, but the impact he will continue to have.

Graham has been integrated into the school curriculum, and as of June 2018, will be housed at the Road Safety Education Centre at Melbourne Museum, teaching 20,000 students every year and potentially reaching the Museums 900,000 annual visitors.

We believe Graham’s power will be felt as these students turn into drivers with him etched into their minds.