Sunday, August 24, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ROAD WARRIOR: Grocery ad featuring cell phone using driver irks shopper into activism

Jeanne Rivard sees roadway safety issues in, of all things, a grocery store's television ad.

The advertisement shows "Everybody Loves Raymond" co-star Patricia Heaton chatting on a cell phone as she drives. She answers another call and is advised she's "snack mother" for the evening, a problem that, of course, is easily solved by a trip to a nearby Albertsons store.

Rivard, a retired real estate broker, is bugged there's more to the message than simply informing viewers that the grocer has lots of snacks at the ready.

"We have a television star driving and talking on a cell phone as she's going to her Albertsons store," Rivard said. "What the advertisement does is confirm this behavior: `It must be fine if they're doing it on television.' "

Concern over that message prompted the Las Vegas grandmother to write Albertsons, pointing out what she sees as the problem with the ad and requesting the grocery chain pull it from the airwaves.

Stacia Levenfeld, spokeswoman for the company, said Friday that the advertisements will continue to air. Emphasizing that Heaton uses a hands-free cell phone in the spot, she added that the company believes the ads portray nothing illegal or unsafe.

"Our advertising seeks to present real-life scenarios," Levenfeld said. "The overall message we intend to send is helping to make their life easier. We would never intend to communicate or enact anything that is illegal or unsafe."

Rivard said her petition is not an attack on Albertsons. She's a longtime customer. She shops regularly at a store near her northwest valley home.

Nor is it a knock on Heaton. Rivard claims to be a fan of the two-time Emmy award winner.

But she thinks both have overlooked the dangerous message and its potential effects. "We're a society of followers, that's why they put advertisements on television," she said.

Rivard also has nothing against cell phones, though she doesn't own one.

She does believe they're used far too often by drivers who vastly underestimate their dangers.

"If people understood, I don't think they'd be making the number of calls they are as they drive," she said. "Those aren't emergency calls they're making; they're just chatting."

There are a growing number of studies documenting how distracting holding a conversation over the phone can be.

Rivard finds most troubling a study released in July by University of Utah researchers, who concluded talking on the cell phone behind the wheel is more dangerous than driving drunk.

The academics, who conducted the test in a driving simulator and had the same subjects participate both as drunken driver and chatting motorist, found drivers talking on phones had a 50 percent reduction in the amount of visual information they processed. Compared with motorists with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent, the talking drivers were involved in more rear-end collisions and took 18 percent longer to return to their initial driving speed after stopping.

The study also pointed out the results were the same whether or not the phone was hands-free or hand-held.

"If somebody's talking on the phone, losing part of the attention they should be directing toward driving, I think it's an auto safety issue," she said. "I see it constantly."

Rivard said she is not the crusading type. This is the first time she can recall taking up a cause.

Part of her motivation comes from her experience nursing her oldest child back to health after two serious car accidents.

"When you experience something like that, the reconstructive surgeries and the hospital stays, you're more attuned to it," she said.

Rivard is also motivated because she believes Albertsons should have known better. Certainly, the grocery chain wouldn't show someone having a few drinks and getting behind the wheel to head to the store, she believes.

"This is not brand new information unless someone's been living in a cave," she said about cell phone dangers. "They could have done that advertisement differently. Why did they have to put her in a car?"

Rivard has received no direct response from Albertsons four weeks after delivering a letter to her local store and mailing one to corporate headquarters in Boise, Idaho.

On Thursday she again saw the advertisement on television.

Then again, if she expects them to pull the ad, maybe Rivard has taken another Albertsons advertising campaign a bit too literally. You know, the one where they call it "your store."

If you have a question for the Road Warrior, call 387-2906 or e-mail MSquires@review journal.com. Include your phone number.