In 1989, when the Transport Accident Commission introduced its new campaign it was eye-catching, but controversial.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The campaign slogan read: “If you drink, then drive, you’re a bloody idiot”.
It was accompanied by a confronting television advert aimed at shocking and drivers.
The TAC wanted people to “feel” real road trauma.
The television advert, entitled ‘Girlfriend’, was shot in the emergency ward at Royal Melbourne Hospital with a woman being taken into emergency after an accident with her boyfriend who was at the wheel drunk.
The campaign had an enormous impact.
The slogan is now used and recognised internationally to this day two decades on.
Despite the impacts the campaign had and the countless lives it has saved, unfortunately, there still remains too many people willing to take risks on the roads.
People still willing to be bloody idiots.
People that were willing to risk their lives and the lives of others.
This at a time when people knew police resources would be bolstered with Operation Safe Return yet they still took the risk.
Two of those drivers blew blood alcohol readings more than three times the legal limit.
Three times.
One of those drivers was almost four times the limit.
Surely we have seen enough death and destruction on our roads to know that if you plan on having a drink, don’t drive.
It’s a good rule to live by and we mean that literally.
If you don’t it might not just be your own life you take.
These are the real consequences that exist when you drink and drive.
The slogan developed almost 20 years ago still remains as relevant now as it was then.
“If you drink, then drive, you’re a bloody idiot”.
