DVLA goes up a gear in campaign to disrupt vehicle tax evasion

The Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA) has released a campaign by VMLY&R to tackle vehicle tax evasion.

“Hard to hide, easy to tax” will run across out of home and print as well as social, radio and online.

The photographs, taken by Taylor Wessing portrait prize winner David Stewart, illustrate the outlandish lengths people may go to hide their car and avoid tax.

From traffic cones to shrubbery, cars are cloaked in bizarre disguises to illustrate how easy it is for the DVLA to spot untaxed vehicles no matter how hard someone might try to hide one.

The campaign moves the DVLA's enforcement advertising in a wittier and more attention-grabbing direction. 

According to the DVLA, more than 98% of about 40 million vehicle records across the UK are taxed correctly. However, 1.9% of motorists still break the law.

Liz Rees, head of external communications at the DVLA, said: “We work hard to drive down vehicle tax evasion and the vast majority of motorists are already doing the right thing and are taxed correctly.

“By showcasing the exaggerated efforts of motorists attempting to hide from taxing their vehicles, we have been able to emphasise that avoiding vehicle tax is not worth the risk.”

Mark Roalfe, chairman of VMLY&R London, added: “This year we wanted to adopt a different tone to the vehicle tax reminder campaign and chose to focus attention on how challenging it is to hide an untaxed vehicle from the DVLA.

“Our new work uses wit and charm to deliver a reminder that it’s not worth the risk in a powerful and insightful way.”

Media planning is handled by Bray Leino and media buying by Manning Gottlieb OMD.