Wrong Side of the Road
The Brief
Change the attitudes of five million people towards drink-driving
In partnership with UNITAR, Diageo needed an educational experience that would shift attitudes towards drink-driving across several global markets, targeting a predominantly 18–35 demographic. The aim: reduce the number of people who believe drink-driving is socially acceptable. Not inform. Transform.
The Solution
Give people a conversation they’d never have in real life
A standalone interactive website that lets users ask direct questions to real people with lived drink-driving experience. No sensationalism. No scare tactics. Just unfettered, personal access to a subject people don’t discuss in everyday life — designed to make users feel the weight of the decision before they ever face it.
Wrong Side of the Road — Experience Trailer
Background
Everyone thinks it won’t happen to them. That’s the problem
Diageo, in partnership with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, wanted a learning experience that would genuinely shift attitudes — not just inform — across multiple global markets for a young adult demographic. Road traffic injuries remain the leading cause of death among 15–29 year olds worldwide. Drink-driving accounts for a significant proportion — and in many markets, social acceptance of the behaviour remains stubbornly high.
Extensive research into why people drink and drive revealed a consistent mindset: “Just one drink can’t hurt — everyone does it.” The brief required a creative approach that could stigmatise negative behaviours and communicate the real effects of alcohol on the body.
Previous approaches to drink-driving education tended towards sensationalism. We needed something fundamentally different — authentic, sensitive, and human enough to create genuine attitudinal change.
Our Approach
Strip it back to the human truth
We built a standalone website featuring first-hand drink-driving stories, integrated with Diageo’s DRINKIQ platform. Users choose which questions to ask a person with lived experience — creating the sensation of a direct, personal conversation about a taboo subject.
Interviewees were filmed at home via video call. We kept the glitches in the recordings to preserve the unpolished, authentic quality of the stories. The design was stripped back to let the honesty and power of the accounts speak for themselves.
The tone was critical. These are people who made poor decisions but are not innately bad — they’re human. They were treated with understanding, not judgement. Pre- and post-experience surveys measured real attitudinal change, making the impact quantifiable, not just anecdotal.
Key Project Assets
Interactive Drink-Drive Experience
A standalone website where users hold personal, question-driven conversations with real people who have lived through the consequences of drink-driving.
Attitudinal Change Measurement
Pre- and post-experience surveys embedded into the platform, documenting measurable shifts in user knowledge and attitudes towards drink-driving.
Global Market Adaptation Framework
A multi-market localisation system ensuring each country receives culturally resonant drink-drive stories, with the experience adapted at a local level.
Impact
In its first year, the experience reached over half a million people worldwide and delivered attitudinal change at a scale that exceeded every target Diageo set.
Project Insights
From sensationalism to empathy
Drink-driving campaigns almost always reach for shock. The problem is that shock wears off. Empathy doesn’t. By letting users sit with a real person and ask the questions they’d never ask in real life, we created something that stays with you long after you close the tab.
This wasn’t about telling people what to think. It was about giving them the space to feel what the consequences actually are — and letting that feeling do the work. Eighty-five per cent attitudinal change suggests the approach is working.
The experience we’ve built gives people unfettered access to something they’d never normally discuss. That directness — that honesty — is what makes it land.
Paul Mallaghan, Director of Creative Strategy & Content — We Are Tilt
