Publicidad social y su influencia en la percepción de las campañas sociales de prevención de accidentes de tránsito en Ecuador

The present article analyzes the perceptions that the adult public of Cuenca city in Ecuador has about the social campaigns of traffic accident prevention. The theoretical framework is constituted by the theories associated with social marketing and social advertising, analyzing the relationship that exists between change agents and target adopters. The methodology consisted of a mixed research, allowing the administration of interviews and 400 surveys to citizens, between 18 and 49 years of Cuenca city. The fundamental objectives were aimed at knowing the perception of the citizenship regarding the social campaigns of accident prevention, discovering the level of citizen awareness towards the problem of traffic accidents in Ecuador, and investigating people s opinion about the co-responsibility for road safety in the city. The results showed that there is a general lack of knowl-edge about road prevention campaigns, and that, in addition, the messages issued by agents of change are not clear enough. In conclusion, the target adopter remembers the messages in a very dispersed way, and does not get empowered either with the campaigns despite understanding the information of the messages issued. Finally, both change agents and target adopters agree that social advertising campaigns are necessary to change public behavior, reduce accidents and improve citizens quality of life.