Mates – THINK!

Mates for Life 2023

THINK! research shows that 8 in 10 young men agree it is unacceptable to drive over the legal limit and note personal responsibility to intervene, but almost a third say they would feel uncomfortable asking a friend not to drink when they were driving.

This winter, THINK! is re-launching the Mates for Life campaign to empower friends to intervene if the moment arises with the message ‘A mate doesn’t let a mate drink drive’.

The campaign leads with the Mates for Life film which illustrates a young man urging his friend not to drink and drive by reminding him of the lifelong friendship and adventures they are yet to have. This follows last winter’s successful campaign which led to 7 in 10 young men taking action as a result of seeing our content, including stopping a friend drinking before driving.

Our films are running across Instagram, Snapchat, and Reddit with paid promotion. We are supporting these with new paid out of home assets to target our audience closer to the moment of risk. These new beermats and digital posters encourage young men to intervene by listening out for justifications their friends may give for drinking before driving.

THINK! is once again joining forces with drinks producer Diageo to continue promoting our drink driving campaign messages through Guinness. This year will see THINK! support an exciting initiative from Guinness 0.0% and Greene King pubs to help designated drivers get everyone home safely. At over 470 participating pubs across the country, drivers will be able to show their car keys at the till and get a free Guinness 0.0% to enjoy an alcohol-free option with their mates. You can learn more about this opportunity on the Guinness website.

Their campaign activity will also drive audiences to Diageo’s new ‘Wrong Side of the Road’ tool, which provides an interactive online experience to learn about the consequences of drink driving.

Follow @THINKgovuk On Twitter, @THINKroadsafety on Facebook and @thinkdriver on Instagram to discover and share more content from the campaign or download at the links 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. For more information on this, please contact dftpublicity@dft.gov.uk

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

Cabbie night out

We teamed up with part-time relationship counsellor and Uber driver Dr. Ofore, and LADbible to create this film.