HOME OFFICE: ‘STREET DARES’

Shame on the streets, success at The Arrows

PROBLEM: Young people don't care for health and safety lectures.

SOLUTION: They do care what their peers think.

MEDIA: CONTENT/TVC/CINEMA/PRINT

Persuading young people to change their drinking habits can feel as tricky as getting served in a pub on a Saturday night. 

Reminders of long-term health risks or depictions of worst-case-scenario accidents are quickly brushed aside as irrelevant. Research suggested that one of the only motivating factors for this age-group was shame: the prospect of looking like a dickhead in front of your peers.

Armed with this insight, we took to the streets of Kingston to try and shame young people into thinking about the things they do during a night on the sauce. Working with film director Saul Dibb, we tested the comic and dramatic potential of the idea that people wouldn't dream of doing things in the day that they might do when drunk.

The resultant film, ‘Street Dares’, picked up a Diploma at the British Arrows. Initially designed as an online film, the Home Office was so happy with the result they expanded the media schedule to include cinema and TV.

The Know Your Limits campaign also included a series of gritty press ads depicting risky or unpleasant scenarios that you’d avoid while sober. As with the film, the ads aimed to get people to think twice about situations they might end up in.