TV ad: Think Road Safety: Sucks to be you

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Young male drivers are overrepresented in fatal and serious car accidents in South Australia. But research shows these drivers – despite the evidence to the contrary – believe they have everything under control. Traditional road safety messaging leans on images of crashes and destruction to remind people of the risks. But that wouldn’t work here. So we decided to scare them with the one thing that young men find truly frightening – looking lame.

To make a bigger impression, our campaign for South Australia Police, focused on the less life changing, but deeply uncool, impact – losing your licence. To ensure we engaged our young audience, we avoided the usual advertising trappings and instead, created what looked like organic social videos set in situations familiar to our 16 to 24 year old audience. A first date. A game of footy. A backyard barbie and a worksite. As this seemingly native content unfolded, we revealed the hero character had become a ‘man baby’ after losing his licence, showing how dependent and inconvenient you become when you lose the ability to drive.