South Australia Police drowns excuses for drink driving in new campaign via The Sideways Theory
South Australia Police is intensifying its crackdown on drink drivers in a gritty new campaign launched by local creative and strategic agency The Sideways Theory. The campaign challenges drink drivers who make excuses for driving when affected by alcohol.
Says Jason Hollamby, director at The Sideways Theory: “We’re letting drivers know that if they choose to get behind the wheel under the influence, they simply can’t properly control their vehicles.
“While male drivers are the main offenders, around 30% are female, and for the first time we took the opportunity to also target the female drivers as well.
“The idea to fill a car with alcohol could have taken a comical path, so it was important to apply a gritty reality that demonstrated the fear that can consume drivers even if they feel like they can get away with it at first.”
Traffic Services Branch Officer in Charge, Superintendent Darren Fielke says: “Road users across South Australia will see this campaign. There are still some people who think it’s okay to drink drive and this campaign is here to tell them that they’re full of it.”
Adds Hollamby: “The campaign demonstrates the physical challenges that drink drivers face when they get behind the wheel. But on a behavioural level, we’re also challenging excuses and the anxiety drink drivers put themselves through whenever they test themselves behind the wheel.”
Engineers disassembled the vehicles and fitted them with a range of pumps and hoses to create a watertight seal that the drivers could safely enter as the liquid filled up around them. 60,000 litres of specially produced non-alcoholic beer and wine was produced by a local brewer to create the campaign that was filmed in-camera without special effects.
Statistics show that in recent years, 17 percent of all fatal crashes and 10 percent of serious injury crashes involved at least on driver or rider with a Blood Alcohol Concentration over the lethal limit. Crash statistics and expiation data indicate a demographic skew toward male driver between 2—39 years of age.
Just launched, the campaign will be seen on all free to air channels, connected TV, out of home, digital, out-of-home locations, social channels, buses and trams.
In memory of Andrew Slattery.
Client: South Australia Police
Client Manager: Richard Blackwell
Creative Director: Jason Hollamby
Director: Jason Hollamby
Account Director: Julie Kushnir
Copywriter: Jason Hollamby
Art Director: Andrew Slattery
Art Director: Jane Keen
Art Director: Todd Eason
Production Co: The Sideways Theory
Casting: South Australian Casting
Production Manager: Rachael Gates
Production Asst: Nicole Schoen
Hair & Makeup: Tracy Phillpot
DOP: Miles Rowland
1st A/C: Jake Cooper
2nd A/C: Rebecca Duncker
3rd A/C: Henry Buckley
Grip: Justin Van Zyl
Grip Assist: Django Nou
Gaffer: Daniel Ross
Gaffer Assist: Blake Stringer
Art Dept: Geoff Tarr
Action Vehicles: Peter Itsines
Safety Supervisor: Johnny Halyday
Safety Supervisor: Keith Bichard
Drone #1 Operator: Andrew Johnston
Sound Recordist: Scott Illingworth, Seeing Sounds
Photographer: Steve McCawley
Asst Photographer: Tom McCawley
Asst Photographer: Josh McCawley
Retoucher: Rowan Dodds
Editor Stephen Deeble, Visualizm
Assistant Editor: Maddie Tierney
Sound Engineer: Scott Illingworth, Seeing Sounds
Male Talent: David Daradan
Female Talent: Stephanie Dawson
Lighting: Daniel Ross
Safety Officer: Clay Dunn
Nurse: Catherine Wake
Traffic Control: Seychell Traffic
Media Agency: Carat
Out of Home: MediaNest, oOh!, JCDecaux
5 Comments
That is SOOOOOOOOOOO awful.
The work rhymes with ‘gritty’…
Will cut through, but doesn’t join up the thinking
This campaign looks like something a junior team might have cooked up in the 90s. And it’s super sloppy. Sure, it’s a single-minded idea, but it doesn’t go anywhere. It’s a visual pun based on the slangy phrase ‘full of it’, meaning ‘full of shit’ aka someone who exaggerates or knowingly tries to deceive someone. But this connection isn’t made in the work. What we have is a car that’s full of liquid (GET IT?) and hard to drive safely (BUT DO YOU GET IT THO?).
Telling drivers that drinking makes driving dicey isn’t news to anyone. And it adds nothing around self-deception, which is the obvious place for the messaging to go with a line like ‘full of it’. That’s what makes this campaign an absolute car crash.
Will people notice? Sure. Will it change behaviour? Nope. It’s a classic creative own goal, getting giddy about an execution and ignoring the actual job your work has to do. Staggering failure to connect.
This is trying to be ‘Don’t be a Tosser’ and ‘No one thinks big of you’ but it doesn’t even come close.
The films don’t make sense – for a moment I thought I was watching another AUDIBLE ad.
And the line on it’s own with a person in a car are just naff.
No one watching this is going to change their behaviour. In fact they might drink more, in the hope their car turns into a brewery.
I’m going against the hater parade and think the craft is actually very high. The message isn’t clear at first but that’s because they didn’t add some pointless and throaty vo that spells everything out for drivers who already know what the rules are anyway. With thousands of drink driver ads floating around the world this is at least is trying to break the mould and for that it tilts in the right direction.