On 28 February 2010, a new television advertisement (ad) that focuses on youth drink-driving will go to air. This ad complements our existing drink-driving campaign by focusing on the reality of being caught.
Youth drink-driving continues to be a major problem in New Zealand. Each year young drunk drivers kill around 50 people and seriously injure 250 people. This equates to the death of one person and serious harm to five people each week.
Although most of New Zealand’s population lives in city areas, the majority of fatal or serious injury crashes that involve young drunk drivers happen in provincial or rural areas. With the combination of alcohol, rural roads and isolated areas, these crashes often result in serious injury or even death.
Accordingly, the primary target audience for this campaign is young male drivers, aged between 17 – 23 years who live in rural or provincial New Zealand. These guys are aware that they shouldn’t drink and drive but this awareness hasn’t yet translated into behaviour. They’ve driven drunk before and they’re willing to take a chance – “nothing will go wrong”; “I won’t get caught”.
The new ad focuses on the reality of failing a breath test and being processed by the Police. As young guys are less capable of appreciating long term outcomes, the ad focuses on the immediate consequences, particularly the connotations associated with being convicted of a crime.
The campaign aims to increase the paranoia around drink-driving – getting stopped at a checkpoint and failing a breath test.
Please find enclosed a copy of the new ad for your information. The ad will run alongside other print and radio advertisements to support Police enforcement.
