A New Year, A Resolution to End Drunk Driving

One resolution we can all get behind is ending drunk driving in New Mexico. We are dedicated to this mission every day we come to work. In collaboration with our client, the New Mexico Department of Transportation, we bring awareness to drinking and driving through multiple mediums and through messaging, some humorous and some serious. Overall, alcohol-related fatalities have decreased significantly in the last 20 years. But it’s not zero. And there has been a recent spike since the Covid pandemic. This last holiday season, we saw drunk driving incidents back in the news, including the horrific crash that took the life of a man in his home. We also saw a drunk wrong way driver on Paseo Del Norte here in Albuquerque. Luckily, no one was killed in that crash.

 

We take drunk driving and all driving safety issues in our state seriously and find the work we do for NMDOT meaningful. Our audience is strategically targeted on social media, through broadcast commercials, billboards, at sporting events and concerts. This winter the message is sober.

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The new Left Behind campaign includes three broadcast spots and social media videos focusing on the victims left behind, one of which features local star, Amber Midthunder. We can feel the shock when they find themselves at the scene of a drunk driving crash, or in one case, an arrest for DWI. Shot in one take, the camera zooms out, slowly exposing the full scene, adding suspense to what we already suspect is a serious situation. It cleverly brings us into a haunting presence. Nick Tauro Jr., RK’s Broadcast Creative Director, spoke about the campaign for an article with the Albuquerque Journal. “The challenge is always trying to come up with a unique way to tell a story. We’ve tried many different approaches. With this one, we were really looking to find a way to tell a story about people who are really the innocent victims of drunk driving. The people in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

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Check out the videos here: