Ping Mobile is taking a stand against texting while driving in support of Oprah Winfrey?s ?No Phone Zone? campaign to warn consumers about the potential dangers.

The company will be promoting its safety position by adding a slogan to all of its staff email signatures, newsletters and Web pages. The slogan says, ?Ping Mobile supports Oprah?s No Phone Zone: Dnt Txt N Drv.?

?Our strategy is to increase awareness on the dangers of texting while driving,? said Shira Simmonds, president/CEO of Ping, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.  ?Since we don't market directly to consumers, there really isn't a target consumer.

?The people who will see this message will be primarily our clients and the industry,? she said.

Ping provides mobile marketing services, including SMS, MMS, IVR, WAP applications and Bluetooth to marketers.

Mobile awareness
Ping is not advertising its support to consumers, but the message is being stated to its clients, which include Domino's Pizza, Dove Hair Care, Degree, Axe, Days Inn, Warner Bros., Kentucky Fried Chicken, Arby?s, Pizza Hut and Hawaiian Airlines.

Additionally, Ping plans to encourage its clients to incorporate the slogan into their campaigns to further support the effort.

Here is a screen shot of Ping's Web site with the slogan:

Text ping
Users can go to Oprah Winfrey's Web site, http://www.oprah.com, to pledge to make their car a no-phone zone.

Currently, there are 302,500-plus pledges submitted.

Ping hopes that the mobile industry will address the texting-and-driving problem head on by creating technology solutions, issuing disclaimers and taking additional steps to insure that mobile device users are being responsible when they send and receive text messages.

Here is another screen shot of Ping's Web site with the slogan:

Recently, Ping partnered with Multiplied Media to deliver targeted campaigns to consumers via a new mobile local search application based on users' keyword search and location.

The application is GPS-enabled and connects consumers to local businesses, people, restaurants and movie theaters at the moment they want to buy or get products and services (see story).

?Oprah has launched a campaign to educate the public about the dangers of texting while driving,? Ms. Simmonds said. ?The importance ? for us ? is to make a statement that we ? a mobile marketing agency ? support her campaign.?

?Even though texting is our business, we don't want people to text while they're driving, and we want to make a very public statement about our position,? she said.