1 It is unusual for actual days of the week to be specified on a media plan. Why do you think specific days were nominated for the television and radio advertisements to air in this case? The Government, or more specifically the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions

(DTLR), has run anti-drink/drive campaigns in the UK for nearly 40 years. Over the last 10 years the annual budget for these advertisements has averaged around

£2m. Despite this continuous investment, nearly 600 road users die in drink/drive collisions each year, and a further 18,000 are injured, several hundred seriously.

According to statistics collected by the RAC Foundation, drinking and driving accounts for one in six road deaths, drivers under the age of 25 are much more likely to be involved in drink/drive crashes, and men are three times more likely to fail a breath test than women.

Over the years, a number of different advertising approaches have been adopted to try to change drink/driving behaviour, and with obvious budgetary constraints, target audiences and media deployment have had to be prioritised. There have been advertisements that have shown the horrific damage that drink/drivers have wrought on other people’s lives – an approach that is still used in Ireland with their ‘Could you live with the SHAME?’ campaign. While this ‘take responsibility’ message was shown to affect some, research indicated that those most resistant to amending their drink/drive behaviour were more likely to be influenced by selfish motives. This led to executions which concentrated on the personal consequences of drink/driving, both practical, such as losing your licence and job, being fined or imprisoned, having a criminal record and higher insurance premiums, and physical, such as being rendered a human ‘vegetable’ like Dave in the 1995 ‘Come on Dave, just one more’ campaign.