Inside a drunk driving campaign - Automobile News

During this time I was a Senior Research and Policy Analyst in the New South Wales (NSW) Center for Road Safety and worked in the Impaired Road Users team working on legislation and policy aimed at developing counter measures designed to curb negative driver behaviors associated with drunk driving, drug driving, driver distraction and driver fatigue. I also worked in the area of Road Safety Technology where I was part of a team working on Intelligent Speed Adaptation that won a major national road safety award sponsored by American corporate icon, 3M.

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Perhaps the work that I am most proud of during my time in the Impaired Road User team is a paper that I wrote which formed the basis of the recently launched statewide �Plan B' anti-drunk driving campaign. It is often the case that these advertisements are conceived of by nameless and faceless government bureaucrat, so it was an interesting experience being responsible for seeing the way this ad came to life. Although, I should stress, that I did not have anything to do with the creative side of the commercial.

I can, however, claim ownership of the general thrust and tone of the ad. It differs markedly from previous anti-drunk driving campaigns in NSW, and in Australia. I would be surprised if there have been any other campaigns that have taken the approach we adopted in NSW. NSW was one of the first major road jurisdictions in the world where random breath testing legislation was passed and actively enforced on a large scale. We recently celebrated 30 years of RBT in 2012, and while it was unpopular on its introduction, it has saved over 7,000 lives on NSW roads in that time.

In fact, the NSW RBT program is often held up as an example around the world as being one of the best examples of a behavior change. Coupled with deterrence ad campaigns matched with over 4.5 million random breath tests conducted every year, it has very much become an unacceptable social behavior. However, I sensed that the public was tiring of constantly negative campaigns that emphasized scare tactics. Research evidence supported this, and instead, we chose to focus on promoting the positive behavioral example, while at the same time subtly reminding the public of the random breath-testing regime.

Humor has also been demonstrated to be a useful tool in engaging an audience, although it is difficult to introduce a humorous tone when dealing with a serious road safety message. I believe that the creatives handled this extremely well the �Plan B' television commercial. The commercial also acknowledges that it is not always convenient to arrange alternative transport after night out drinking, particularly for drivers in rural areas. Despite this, people are urged to plan ahead and think of ways in which they can go out and have a drink, but not be a danger to themselves and other drivers by driving home intoxicated.

I think that we nailed it with the �Plan B' commercial, although I haven't yet seen the tracking data since its launch to gage its impact. With drunk driving deaths in the U.S. accounting for around 31 percent of road fatalities (or over 10,000 fatalities annually), do you think an ad campaign like the one we have developed in NSW would be useful where you're from?

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Source: Leftlanenews