Chennai's 10 Downing Street's reminder to drunk drivers

Pub collaborates with Dentsu to come up with a hard-hitting, innovative campaign to dissuade drunk driving

Sohini Sen | Mumbai | June 3, 2014

Click on the image to watch the TVC.

How many times have we shaken our heads at reports of ill-fated cars colliding? How many discussions have we had about people being irresponsible and driving home drunk after a night of partying? And yet, police check-posts and CCTV cameras notwithstanding, most people drive home after a few drinks. Their excuse: 'Oh, it's just a few drinks. I am completely fine.'

10 Downing Street, a popular pub in Chennai, along with the Chennai Traffic Police, decided that things cannot go on like this. Playing their small part, they have brought out a public service message to discourage drunk driving. Helping them in this mission is Dentsu India.

The government has come out with numerous campaigns to remind motorists not to drive after drinking. There have been ads on TV, posters on roads, slogans at traffic signals, etc. Millions of rupees have been spent, but going by the data of drunk drivers booked last year, the reminders are falling on deaf ears.

10 Downing Street wanted to bring down this number. With their anniversary coming along, the opportunity was perfect. Usually, when a public service message is sent out, people think it cannot happen to them. Dentsu realised that to get the message across they would have to hit closer home.

Rathish P Subramaniam

Rathish P Subramaniam, Sr. Creative Director, Dentsu, said, “Driving after drinking is an irrational and impulsive decision. To address this issue, a public service message wasn't good enough. There is nothing more hard-hitting than reminding a person how disastrous an accident would be, not just for them but for their family too. We got 10 Downing Street's patrons to realise this by making a public service message that is a bit more personal.”

The pub organised an anniversary party which was to be a big Page 3 event. To get invited to the party, people had to 'like' it on Facebook. The Facebook like gave the agency access to the invitee's photographs. The agency then got to work and took photos of them with their family or friends and slapped a message across them in special ink. The message, reminding people to not drink and drive, would read only under UV lights and therefore would not be readable under normal circumstances. Around 103 UV stickers were printed and made ready.

After the party was over, before the invitees went to their cars, the stickers were stuck to their windshields. As they turned the key, a concealed UV light would come on to display the hidden message which would remind them to not drive home and call a driver instead.

The pub decided to walk the talk as well and organised free driver services for that night for its 180 patrons.

Nagesh Reddy

Nagesh Reddy, Proprietor, 10 Dowling Street, commented, “As a pub, we have always encouraged responsible drinking among our patrons. The activity done by Dentsu just reinforces this interest we show to our patrons.”

The entire activity has also been made into a video and uploaded on YouTube.

The Video:

https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/

Credits:

Client: 10 Downing Street Pub &Chennai Traffic Police

Creative Agency: Dentsu India Group

Executive Creative Directors: Ashwin Parthiban, Shiv Parameswaran

Sr. Creative Director: Rathish P Subramaniam

Creative Director: Sachit Sadanandan

Director (film): Mark Manuel

Production House: Silent Picture Company

Sohini.Sen@bestmediainfo.com

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