Labour drink-drive ad targets poor excuses

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have been replaced by ordinary people with whom viewers can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.

This article was first published on Campaign