Drink driving

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.

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.

THINK! Restart Activity

THINK! has launched a new series of social films in response to easing of Covid-19 restrictions and high-risk young male drivers returning to busier roads.

Supporting the Government’s Safer Transport Campaign, the activity reinforces key road safety messages on speeding, drink, and mobiles, prioritising those at highest risk on the road. Young males aged 17-24 are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured compared to car drivers aged 25 and over.

We’ve created 3 videos in collaboration with SPORTbible highlighting the importance of safe behaviours behind the wheel as young drivers return to the road. Building on the return of live sport and our audience beginning to get back on the road to meet up with friends, the videos feature legendary football commentator Jonathan Pearce.

To accompany these videos we have created a series of bitesize films tackling mobile phone distraction, speeding and drink driving targeting our priority audience, with activity running on channels including Snapchat, Instagram Stories and a Twitter sports partnership.

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 and download the campaign films

Take Extra Care

THINK! is supporting a campaign from Road Safety Great Britain encouraging all road users to help reduce the strain on the emergency services during the coronavirus pandemic by taking extra care when making essential journeys.

The pressure being placed on the NHS due to the coronavirus pandemic is well known.

While early evidence suggests measures to delay the spread of the virus are reducing the number of vehicles on the road, some still need to use the roads for essential journeys such as getting to work and for food shopping.

An average of 70 people per day were seriously injured (25,511) in 2018 – all of whom would have required hospital treatment.

To reduce the number of road casualties during these unprecedented times, Road Safety GB is reminding all road users to do everything they can to avoid collisions and casualties, including:

• Always drive at a legal and appropriate speed

• Always wear a seat belt

• Never drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs

• Never use a mobile phone while driving

• Only use the roads for essential travel

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 campaign materials can be viewed or downloaded below.

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

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 facts

Drink driving is illegal and puts lives at risk.
It is not possible to say how much alcohol you can drink and stay below the limit. The way alcohol affects you depends on:
- your weight, age, sex and metabolism (the rate your body uses energy)
- the type and amount of alcohol you’re drinking
- what you’ve eaten recently
- your stress levels at the time
So if you’re driving, it’s better to have none for the road.
IAM RoadSmart calculates that a drink drive conviction could cost up to £70,00 as a result of fines, solicitors fees, increase in the cost of car insurance, and losing a job.

The law

There are strict alcohol limits for UK drivers:

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the legal alcohol limit for drivers is:

35 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath
80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood
107 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of urine

In Scotland (from 5 December 2014), the legal alcohol limit for drivers is lower at:

22 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath
50 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood
67 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of urine.

The consequences

There are strict penalties if you are convicted of drink driving, including:

a minimum 12 month driving ban
a criminal record
an unlimited fine
up to 6 months in prison
an endorsement on your licence for 11 years

The maximum penalty for causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs is 14 years in prison, with a minimum driving ban of two years.

In addition to these penalties are the everyday consequences of being caught drink driving which can include:

increase in car insurance costs
job loss
trouble getting in to countries like the USA
the shame of having a criminal record
loss of independence

Cabbie night out

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

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.

Christmas drink drive campaign uses friends’ influence to help save lives

Christmas campaign works with Kiss FM to get people encouraging their friends not to drink and drive.

Tell your friends not to drink drive this festive period – says latest THINK! campaign starting today (7 December 2017).

For this year’s campaign, which runs to January 1 (2018), THINK! has teamed up with Kiss FM duo Rickie and Melvin, who will be urging young adults to encourage their friends not to get behind the wheel after drinking.

The radio presenters will also front videos for Kiss FM’s social media channels, with its audience almost a third more likely than the average person to enjoy a night out in a pub.

A further radio advert, which will run in England and Wales, uses the message “mates don’t let mates drink and drive”, playing on the fact friends will say anything to each other, except to stop them from drink driving.

Road Safety Minister Jesse Norman said:

Driving even while below the legal limit is becoming increasingly socially unacceptable, with more and more people choosing to turn down drinking any alcohol when they plan to drive. But even so there are still some drivers who are willing to take the risk.

Friends, colleagues and family members can positively influence those around them. So we are calling on them to stop potential drink drivers from getting behind the wheel and risking tragedy this Christmas.

Rickie Haywood Williams said:

We feel we owe it to our audience to share such an important message. Me and Melv grew up together, we look out for each other and we want to spread the word to our listeners to do the same.

Melvin Odoom continued:

Rickie will always be there for me on a night out and vice versa. Drink driving awareness is something that needs to be out in front at all times. The campaign is designed to shine a light on the issue and we want to help us much as we can to stop people making the wrong decision.

Police forces across England and Wales are also taking part in enforcement action throughout December and on January 1.

National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Roads Policing, Chief Constable Anthony Bangham said:

Every year police forces deal with cases of drink or drug driving that directly result in families facing Christmas without loves ones. Even a small amount of alcohol or drugs in your system can affect your ability to drive safely – don’t let your friends and family pay the price.

Police forces are running targeted operations across the country to enforce the law on drink and drug driving: you can face an unlimited fine, disqualification for driving, and a long prison sentence.

In October, it was the 50th anniversary of the breathalyser test. Last December (2016), 89,138 motorists were tested and 5,869 were found to be over the drink drive limit.

In England last year, more than half of car drivers who were involved in a crash and failed a breath test were aged up to 34.

THINK! has also teamed up with a number of partners including Arriva Buses, which is offering free bus journeys to either home or work the morning after a night out, and Budweiser, which is launching a new alcohol-free beer to coincide with the campaign.

LADbible will also be creating videos for its social media channel.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is also promoting its cold water shock film, which delivers a hard-hitting message designed to make people think twice before entering the water. Coastguard statistics reveal that on average around 50 people die of alcohol-related drowning around the coast of the UK each year. Of these, a significant percentage are young men who end up in the water as they make their way home.

Network Rail, British Transport Police and Rail Safety Standards Board will also be launching an alcohol awareness campaign next week reminding the public to “keep a clear head” when they are around the railway. The organisations will also be targeting Christmas revellers at the busiest railway stations as well as in pubs and clubs located near railways stations and level crossings.