DPS

Driver apathy regarding the risks of unsafe driving is one of the greatest challenges of Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety.

So to break through these “It won’t happen to me” attitudes, DPS wanted more emotional, more visceral messages that could jolt the audience out of their complacency.

My TV commercials literally put viewers in the driver’s seat during the aftermath of a rollover, a drunk-driving fatality and a collision with a pedestrian.

Radio spots featured monologues by a mortician, a paramedic and a lawyer, each describing from their own perspective and in disturbing detail what happens to you after you’ve had an auto crash. (I became a quick study of legal procedure, emergency medicine and mortuary science.)

Outdoor boards were similarly blunt, with dramatic images of shattered windshields and smashed-in vehicles, and headlines that used simple, direct language to warn drivers of both the safety risks and legal penalties of unsafe driving.

As planned, the provocative visuals (and mental pictures) of the advertising did indeed rise above the clutter. Ironically, the “Mortician” radio spot was actually banned by one radio station on the grounds of being “too shocking” – this from a station with the raunchiest of morning drive-time programs.