Last updated August 10, 2026
There are a handful of great reasons to drive safely. If you want to avoid vehicular injuries, car damage, or just dodge tickets from police officers, obeying traffic signs while paying close attention to the habits of other drivers are good ways to do so. But I suspect the most common reason that drivers stay under the speed limit is a fear of getting a ticket or being harassed by police officers. And why operate based on fear when we don’t have to?
That’s the philosophy behind Volkswagon’s new internet campaign dubbed “The Fun Theory,” which posits that “something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.”
Under this mission, the German automaker asked internet users to submit multimedia shorts about improving driver behavior. The winning entry declared that in addition to being punished for disobeying traffic laws, good drivers should be rewareded for their actions. Here’s how it would work: every time a driver received a traffic ticket, a portion of his or her fine would go toward a prize for a citizen caught on camera driving safely. As Dennis Yang over at TechDirt writes, “a $500 ticket definitely stings, but a $500 ticket PLUS a little note that had you not been speeding, you could have won $10,000 instead? Ouch, that hurts a lot more.”
See the winning video here:
