Image – THINK!

Drink a Little. Risk a Lot.

In 2022, an estimated 1,920 people were killed or seriously injured in collisions where drink driving was a factor. Young men are over-represented in drink drive casualties, yet are less likely than the general population to say that drink driving is risky.

To tackle this, THINK! is launching a new winter campaign to highlight the consequences of even a few drinks before driving.

50% of young male drivers say they intend to be sensible but often get carried away when socialising, putting themselves at risk. We want to challenge young male drivers’ perceptions around personal limits, by raising awareness that even a little bit of alcohol can put you and your licence at risk.

The creative uses eye-catching illustrations and animations that show a driving licence disappearing into a pint of beer. Campaign assets highlight the impact licence loss can have on your freedom, social life, even your job, as well as the risk of injuring yourself or others – consequences that research shows resonate strongly with our audience. The campaign will run across Snapchat, Reddit, Facebook and Instagram, online video channels including YouTube and Twitch, billboards within 100 metres of pubs in England and Wales, and beermats and washroom posters in pubs and bars to influence risky behaviour in the moment.

A 30 second advert will run across Kiss, Capital, Radio X and TalkSPORT, podcasts and digital audio channels.

This winter, we are also joining forces with industry to launch THINK! 0%, a brand new, partner-led platform aiming to encourage drivers to always opt for 0% over an alcoholic drink if they’re getting behind the wheel.

Assets are available to download below and are free for organic use. For information on using the assets through paid media channels please contact dftpublicity@dft.gov.uk

Follow the campaign on X, Facebook and Instagram to discover more and share.

To download any of the videos below, select your chosen video, which will bring up the video player. Click on the ‘Vimeo’ logo in the bottom right of the video player and head to our Vimeo page, where you can download directly.

Activate Pint Block!

THINK! has launched Phase Two of Pint Block: our ongoing campaign encouraging young men to step in and stop a mate from drink driving.

Phase One featured six ‘Pint Block’ films showing mates using inventive and surreal ways to intervene, with the message that a mate doesn’t let a mate drink drive.

For Phase Two, we’ve worked with ten illustrators to bring 60 new Pint Blocks to life – one for each of the young drivers who, on average, is killed or seriously injured each month while found to be driving over the legal alcohol limit.

Our 60 illustrations range from simple ideas like distracting your mate to steal his pint, to more surreal Pint Blocks including hypnosis, zombie hands, and opening a black hole to swallow your mate’s drink!

The illustrations will be promoted with a strong focus on out-of-home advertising in sports club changing rooms, bars and pubs – all locations where our target audience spend time with their mates.

Illustrations will also be promoted on social media alongside our six Pint Block videos, aligned with culturally and seasonally relevant moments for our target audience.

You can access and download our 60 Pint Block illustrations here or repost the illustrations from our Instagram page . You can also see and download our six Pint Block films on this website.

Phase Two of the Pint Block campaign continues to form part of our ‘Always On’ communications approach, which targets young men via the moments and channels that are most relevant to them.

The target audience for our campaign is 17-24-year-old men, who continue to be heavily over-represented in drink drive-related collisions. Young men are also less likely than the wider population to perceive drink driving behaviour as risky or unacceptable.

Assets supplied are free to use for educational purposes, however if used in a paid-for capacity (particularly outside of the national campaign period) usage fees may apply.

View, download and share Pint Block illustrations

Party Car

Young males aged 17-24 are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured compared with car drivers aged 25 or over – and young male drivers are more likely to crash with passengers in the car.

Our Party Car campaign is aimed at tackling driving distractions among this high-risk group.

Launched on 30 January 2020, our latest campaign encourages passengers to ‘let a mate concentrate’.

We’ve created a suite of videos that will run across social media and online video, including Instagram stories, Snapchat and gaming apps. The films show how distracting certain behaviours – which may seem minor – can be to the driver.

To watch the videos, click on the icons below. To download any of the videos click on the on-screen ‘Vimeo’ logo and download directly from our Vimeo page. Assets supplied are free to use for educational purposes, however if used in a paid-for capacity (particularly outside of the national campaign period) usage fees may apply.

Pint Block

Male drivers aged 17-24 are over-represented in drink drive related accidents. They’re also less likely than the wider population to perceive drink driving behaviour as risky or unacceptable.

Our ‘Pint Block’ films encourage young men to intervene to stop a mate drinking before they drive. The films show mates using inventive and surreal ways to step in, with the message that a mate doesn’t let a mate drink drive.

Running on social media and online video, the campaign is part of our ongoing Mates Matter strategy – which looks to reduce risky driving behaviour by getting young men to have each other’s backs and challenge perceptions about what it means to be a good driver.

To watch the videos, click on the icons below.

Assets supplied are free to use for educational purposes, however if used in a paid-for capacity (particularly outside of the national campaign period) usage fees may apply.

The Road Whisperer

1 in 5 drivers crash in the first year after passing their test. Our research revealed that young drivers often feel vulnerable on the road. This can lead to them driving more defensively and taking unnecessary risks to over-compensate for their inexperience.

We know it takes real road experience to become a good driver. Launched 5 March 2019, our latest campaign encourages new drivers to ‘learn the ways of the road’ with the help of the Road Whisperer.

The mysterious Road Whisperer – think ‘The Dude’ from The Big Lebowski – will deliver tips and advice around some of the most nerve-wracking moments that new drivers face.

We’ve created a suite of tips that will run throughout March across cinema, video on demand and social media. The tips include driving on country roads, on motorways, at night, in light rain, on roundabouts, the importance of checking your tyres, and looking out for vulnerable road users.

Our launch materials are available below.

We’ll be making the remaining assets available throughout March. Assets supplied are free to use for educational purposes, however if used in a paid-for capacity (particularly outside of the national campaign period) usage fees may apply.

Helpful hazards

Our Helpful hazards campaign provides tips and advice on driving safely on country roads.

The helpful hazards film takes common countryside sights (farm animals and agricultural equipment) and turns them into messengers, warning drivers of the potential hazards on country roads.

We partnered with LadBible to create engaging content for our target audience on social media.

THINK! put your phone away

On 1 March 2017, the penalties for using a handheld phone while driving increased. At the time of campaign launch, more than 26k drivers have been issued 6 points on their licence, and 500 new drivers have lost their licence.

THINK! campaign results show that whilst awareness of the penalty increase improved among adult drivers in England & Wales, and the perception of danger and unacceptability of using a phone while driving remained high, one in six still admitted to doing it.

This could be due to scepticism about getting caught (37% agree that the chance of getting caught is minimal) and individuals not worrying about the consequences of getting caught (48% worry about the impact of getting caught).

This campaign mark the one year anniversary of the penalty increase by highlighting to drivers that using your phone while driving has risk to life and risk to your licence.

The campaign included a re-run of the case study film ‘life without Zoë” to view this campaign material click here .

Mates matter

Our campaign is calling on friends to do what they do best – look out for each other.

We’re specifically calling for mates to intervene and stop their mates when they are tempted to drink driving.

Young men are heavily over-represented in drink drive related accidents. In 2016, 280 young men aged 16-24 were killed or seriously injured due to drink driving in Great Britain.

Emoji Social Content

We created a series of social assets which used emojis to raises awareness of the dangers of drink driving, drug driving, not wearing a seat belt and using a mobile phone when driving. These were posted organically across THINK! social channels

Pink Kittens

Our new road safety campaign has launched a new ad to drive home the amount of information that is missed by people when they’re looking at their phones.