With the holiday season comes concern about an increase in drinking and driving. In response, the Ad Council, TVB and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are educating the public about the dangers and cost of drunk driving with “Project Roadblock: Local TV Puts the Brakes on Drunk Driving.”
“Local television broadcasters have donated countless hours of media to our Buzzed Driving Prevention campaign,” said Peggy Conlon, Ad Council president and CEO. “Their generosity for Project Roadblock 2012 will further extend our critical ‘buzzed driving is drunk driving’ message into homes nationwide during this holiday season.”
Stations participating in Project Roadblock air multimedia PSAs between December 26 and New Year’s Eve designed to let viewers know about the dangers of getting behind the wheel after drinking.
One of the PSAs titled “Bad Daters” illustrates the financial consequences of a DUI. The main character in the spot makes his date pay for dinner, walks her home through the cold and rain because he can’t drive and lives with his parents because he spent all his money on legal fees. Participating stations also use social media to get the message out through “don’t drink and drive” messages on their facebook, twitter and YouTube pages via the #BuzzedDriving hash tag.
On its site, TVB spells out how to participate and talks about the effectiveness of the campaign,
Project Roadblock/Buzzed Driving Awareness is at its highest level since the campaign began 9 years ago. According to a 2011 post Roadblock analysis, 58% of the adult public, and 61% of the core target, men age 21-35, reported having seen or heard a Buzzed driving PSA following the Project Roadblock flight. Additionally, 59% of adults 21+ said they would not drive themselves home if they were out and feeling “buzzed.”
To learn more about the program click here, or click here to see a list of participating stations. Here’s a link to the campaign website.