Thanachart Insurance transforms traffic signs to confront Thailand’s wrong-way riders

Bangkok, Thailand – Thanachart Insurance has launched a road safety campaign in Roi-Et Province that turns the reverse side of traffic signs into warnings aimed specifically at wrong-way motorcycle riders, one of the country’s deadliest traffic behaviours.

Created with YDM Thailand and backed by the Suwannaphum Municipality, the campaign tackles a flaw long embedded in road design itself: traffic signs only face people travelling in the correct direction.

Rather than adding more conventional signage, the campaign reworked the hidden back panels of existing road signs along National Highway 202 and nearby routes in Roi-Et Province.

The installations resemble funeral wreaths, assembled from real motorcycle crash debris including broken mirrors, bent metal frames, and damaged vehicle parts recovered from previous accidents. 

In Thai culture, funeral wreaths are closely associated with death rituals and mourning, giving the warning an immediate emotional weight.

“The Sign You Shouldn’t See—for the first time, we can reach the riders we couldn’t before. And that means safer roads for everyone,” said Kongsak Hansawangsin, President of Thanachart Insurance.

The campaign was rolled out during Songkran 2026, the country’s peak travel season and historically one of its most dangerous road periods.

Beyond advertising metrics, the intervention has now crossed into public infrastructure. Suwannaphum Municipality has adopted the installations as permanent road safety signage, a rare outcome for a brand-led behavioural campaign.

“If you are doing the right thing, you will never see this sign,” said Somsak Settho, Mayor of Suwannaphum Municipality.

For Thanachart Insurance, the campaign is as much about economics as public safety. “Every wrong-way accident is more than a claim. It is a family changed, a community affected, and a preventable cost to society,” the company said in campaign materials.

The agency behind the work, YDM Thailand, combines the operations of FCB Bangkok and MullenLowe Bangkok under a unified creative structure, reflecting the consolidation trend reshaping parts of the region’s advertising market.

The campaign film has been released online as the company explores expansion into other high-risk traffic zones across Thailand and potentially wider Southeast Asia, where motorcycles remain deeply woven into urban mobility and roadside risk alike.