Introduction:
Norwegian Safety Forum is a national advocate for safety, a non-profit membership-based organization. The mission is to prevent home and leisure accidents by forming policies, develop projects and activities and spread information to key stakeholders from communities, public sector, non-governmental organizations, and businesses. Most accidents can be prevented, often with very simple means. We`re always looking for ways to strengthen awareness about accident, injuries, and injury prevention. The past few years we have systematically used Friday 13th to promote injury prevention and safety promotion. Objectives and methods Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in European culture. Skafor tries to use the energy and interest for this special day to focus on safety promotion and injury prevention. We`ve had many headlines quoting “Today is Friday 13th and we can expect more than 1.800 people looking for medical care due to accidents”, and in smaller print explaining that this is not because of the “magical date” but on average that many people need medical care every day. This presentation will not reveal new knowledge or explain causation for accidents. We simply want other organizations to join our efforts to turn the day into a European day for injury prevention. The day occurs one to three times every year, in different seasons of the year. This gives us an opportunity to focus on different types of accidents. In the springtime we can focus on bicycling accidents, in the summer on drowning, in the fall on safety indoors and in the winter on use of open fire, falls on slippery ice or use of reflectors in the dark. Results and conclusion We find that our symbol the black cat works well in communication about Friday 13th. Cats are considered to have a remarkable ability to survive falls and other hazards. In many countries they are considered to have nine lives, in other countries the saying is six or seven. In our communication we use the slogan “A cat has nine lives – you don`t” and give a short advice for safety in everyday life. These campaigns also give us an opportunity to gain interest for other parts of our work. We have experienced that marketing this day opens new doors to communication. In the presentation we can share articles and ideas used to support our safety message, and we hope other organizations will join our initiative.