A hanging new marketing campaign is rolling out in Denmark this week, aiming at drug driving, which is a rising downside amongst younger drivers within the nation. Whereas most individuals instinctively perceive the dangers of ingesting earlier than getting behind the wheel, the hazards of cannabis-impaired driving simply aren’t touchdown in the identical method.
In response to the Danish Highway Security Council, roughly a 3rd of great or deadly drug-related site visitors accidents contain drivers aged simply 17 to 24. With consciousness worryingly low, the organisation has teamed up with unbiased inventive company Value Your Whereas to chop by means of complacency.
Titled Op i røg (or Up in Smoke), the marketing campaign takes the results of drug driving and turns them into one thing you’ll be able to actually maintain in your hand. On the centre of the PR push is a set of rolling papers styled to appear like Danish driving licences, which can be handed to influencers and press, providing a tongue-in-cheek reminder that lighting up a joint earlier than driving is a quick path to watching your actual licence disappear.
Alongside this bodily ingredient are two animated 30-second movies directed by Jack Brown, who has beforehand labored with Ariana Grande, The Weeknd and Jorja Smith. The movies use a green-tinted palette to inform the tales of younger drivers whose licences fairly actually went “up in smoke”. Though animated, the tales are grounded in actual circumstances, which supplies the work a pointy emotional edge with out veering into sensationalism.
The primary movie, Chase, follows a disqualified younger driver who borrows his father’s keys, picks up pals, smokes, and shortly feels invincible sufficient to run a purple gentle. When the police seem, he tries to flee, solely to search out himself in a holding cell. The second that hits hardest is the shot of his mom’s devastated response in courtroom.
The second movie, HotBox, introduces a younger girl who smokes two joints in her parked automobile after arguing together with her boyfriend. She decides to drive, manages barely 100 metres and is swiftly pulled over. As an alternative of counting on shock issue, the movie tracks the fallout in fairly a measured method, from the assessments and the arrest to the sluggish realisation that all the things she depends on may very well be misplaced. The principle message right here is that her pals, her automobile, and her independence have all been compromised by a second’s resolution.
Selecting animation over reside motion was a deliberate transfer, because it meant the staff may keep away from the awkwardness of staged reenactments whereas nonetheless honouring the reality of the tales. It additionally offered house for impactful visible metaphors, similar to licences dissolving into smoke, which punctuate each movies.
The broader technique attracts on analysis into efficient deterrence campaigns, notably in the way to translate summary dangers into one thing relatable. In Denmark, shedding your licence for drug driving means three years with out driving, a heavy reliance on public transport and, typically, the frustration of household and pals. The marketing campaign spells out these penalties clearly, quite than relying solely on worry.
Karina Petersen, VP on the Danish Highway Security Council, reinforces that the issue is greater than most individuals assume. She says: “Our surveys, the police expenses, and the accident statistics all clearly present that far too many younger Danish drivers have a very relaxed angle towards driving beneath the affect of hashish.
“That is why we’re launching the marketing campaign to warn the goal group that their behaviour can have main penalties for themselves and others.”
Christian Berthelsen from the Danish Nationwide Police echoes that urgency, explaining: “Yearly, the police cost 1000’s of individuals with drug-driving, and a big proportion of them are beneath the affect of hashish.
“Whenever you select to take mind-altering substances after which exit into site visitors, you place not solely your self however all different highway customers in danger.”
Value Your Whereas’s founding companion and inventive director, Lukas Lund, says the rolling papers have been designed to create a second of friction quite than provoke for the sake of it. “It’d sound wild to show a driver’s license into rolling paper,” he says, “however typically it’s essential do one thing simply loopy sufficient to make younger folks cease and assume.”
Up in Smoke launches at the moment throughout streaming platforms, cell video games, social channels and digital screens in colleges and faculties, aiming to satisfy younger folks the place they really are. Whether or not the message lands will turn into clear in time, but it surely actually appears they’ve the intelligent technique and inventive finesse to again it up.
