The Labour Government has unveiled its first drink-drive
advertising offensive since coming to power in May, with a TV, radio and
cinema campaign launched this week by Baroness Hayman, the minister for
road safety.
DMB&B, which has created the annual Christmas campaign for the past
seven years, has moved on from the scare tactics of the last two years.
The disfigured young girl (1996) and the brain-damaged ’Dave’ (1995)
have been replaced by ordinary people with whom viewers can
identify.
Barry Cook, the managing director of DMB&B, said: ’Drink driving is now
almost universally condemned, but for many people this means ’drunk’
driving.
The new ad squares up directly to this, using recognisable excuses to
get across the fact that it’s not just ’drunk’ drivers who kill people,
but many supposedly responsible people who gamble with the limit.’
The commercial shows a series of people in drinking situations making
apparently plausible excuses for drinking and driving.
As the ad finishes, the word ’responsible’ comes up on screen. After a
pause, it continues ’for killing, crippling and maiming thousands in
drink-drive accidents.’ A new endline then appears: ’Have none for the
road.’
One man says he doesn’t need a breathalyser because his girlfriend just
takes his car keys if he has drunk too much. Another says because he has
to drive a lot for work, he drinks up to the limit but never over, while
a third man admits drinking more than most, but doesn’t ’overdo’ it
because ’you don’t know how much other people have had’.
Cook explained: ’It’s about guilt rather than shock. Realising it’s your
own behaviour you have to think about, not someone else’s.’
The ad was written by Steve Wakelam and Johnny Pittard, and directed by
Joe Public through Partizan Midi Minuit.
