Striking the target audience

Striking the target audience
Drink and Drive


Think you are sober enough to drive? Take a look in the mirror.

According to 2012 government statistics, more drivers aged between 20-24 failed breath tests than any other age group, and of the 3,000 people killed or seriously injured each year in drink driving accidents, young men (17-29) are most likely to be driving the vehicles involved.

That is why the latest THINK! campaign, run by the Department for Transport, is a hard-hitting ad particularly targeting this age group.

The Government's shocking new ad campaign to deter drink drivers sees young men looking into a mirror in a pub toilet when suddenly a woman smashes through the mirror, replicating the impact of a person hitting a car windscreen. The impact causes the mirror to crack, 'blood' to run down the frame and into the sink. While the woman is a mannequin and the men involved are actors, their reactions are real and the image of a bloodied face through a windscreen combined with sounds of a car accident, make for a startling video.

Created by Leo Burnett and titled #PubLooShocker, the ad has been widely praised online. Just some of the tweets include: ‘Great idea for a shock advert’, ‘a good example of advertising that creates disproportionate impact on people’ and ‘terrifying, but honestly such a good anti-drink driving campaign.’ In its first week of release, the YouTube video had received just over 5 million views and over 7,000 tweets using the hashtag, PubLooShocker.

Previous campaigns have focused on losing personal assets and financial implications – the £50,000 pint of beer was revealed by the Government in March. This latest interpretation is arguably the most shocking since the memorable ‘Haunted’ campaign in 2009. Specifically released over the summer months when pub lunches and after work drinks are common, a powerful print and radio campaign dramatising the consequences of drink-driving support the ad.



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