Think ‘celebrates’ 50 years since first anti drink-drive ad
Kool and the Gang’s ‘Celebrate’ is the soundtrack to the government’s latest Think campaign, looking at how the rate of drink-driving deaths has fallen – but is not low enough.
Ambulance drivers, firemen and doctors sing along to the classic tune as the pull the body of a woman out of a crashed car in the ad.
Marking 50 years since the first anti drink-driving campaign, the ad remarks that although deaths have fallen significantly from 1,640 in 1967 to 230 deaths in 2012, that one death on our roads is still one too many.
Research by Think found that 92 per cent of people said they would feel ashamed if they were caught drinking and driving, comparing to over half of male drivers and nearly two thirds of young male drivers who admitted drink driving on a weekly basis in 1979.
Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “The change in attitudes to drink driving over the last 50 years is a huge success story. It is hard to imagine now how shocking and ground-breaking the first drink drive campaigns were when they launched. Clearly Think has had a significant impact.”
Today, over 88 per cent of people say that they would think badly of someone who drinks and drives and almost half of respondents say they would prefer to tell their partner they watch pornography regularly than confess to being caught drink driving (45 per cent).