‘Abbey Road’ Album Cover Is Saving Lives In India

The famous cover for the Beatles album Abbey Road is helping save lives in India. As I’m sure you will recall the album cover features John, Paul, George, and Ringo walking in a straight line through a standard crosswalk in St John’s Wood, London.

In India where road conditions are horrid at best, more than 140,000 people die in road accidents every single year.

Released in 1969, the album’s artwork is now being placed on billboards throughout Calcutta, a city where 400 people die every year in 3,000 traffic related accidents.

The Abbey Road artwork is met with the question, “If they can, why can’t you?”

India and its lack of safe road conditions has meant a great divide between the country and others. For example, there are only 2,000 road deaths in the UK each year and around 32,000 in the United States.

In Calcutta alone, there are already hundreds of signs featuring the Abbey Road billboard,s and police say the band’s profile alone is “a big enough incentive for people to take notice.”

An officer tells The Telegraph, “We are trying to say that if John, Paul, George and Ringo could use the zebra crossing, you can do it too.

He adds:

“The Beatles touched thousands of lives with their music and we are simply trying to use their universal appeal to save lives.”

Representatives in St John’s Wood say they are happy to see their iconic crosswalk helping save lives in such a practical manner.

Do you think the Beatles’ Abbey Road billboard idea is a smart marketing campaign for promoting road safety?