Invisible bear makes cyclists safer in London

Saturday, November 15, 2008 - 19:14 in Psychology & Sociology

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...

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