Drinking And Driving Wrecks Lives is the tagline to a series of public information films (PIFs) that ran in the UK between 1987 and 1997 as part of the Government's Safety on the Move road safety campaign, addressing the problem of drink-driving.

Background

Unlike earlier campaigns which focused on consequences to the offender, this campaign was more aimed at showing the devastation that drink-driving can cause to the victims and their families, intending to produce an emotional response from the viewer. The films were primarily targeted towards young working-class men, who were most likely to be convicted of drink driving, and aimed for the practice to become socially unacceptable.

Films

The campaign included several different films: Storylines and camera techniques (such as the extreme close ups used in the Eyes and Kathy campaigns) were designed to encourage drinking drivers to identify with the people affected by this behaviour, showing that drink driving is not a "victimless crime".

Response

The campaigns were mostly shown on television advertising, and as posters on public buildings, and generated a considerable amount of press interest. It was a success, and by January 1988, convictions for driving over the limit had fallen to a new low, considerably beyond expectations. The Department of Transport also noted a corresponding drop in road traffic casualties. The campaign was replaced in 1997 by a new slogan, "Have none for the road". Drink driving related deaths fell from 1,640 in 1979 to 230 in 2012.