THE CAMPAIGN: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Speeding Wrecks Lives campaign aims to change attitudes toward speeding and reminds drivers of the risks, dangers and consequences of speeding, including threats to personal safety, the safety of others, and the consequences of getting a speeding ticket. Even with fewer cars on the road during the pandemic, 2020 saw a dramatic 17% increase in speeding-related deaths compared to 2019. To distribute this life-saving message as broadly as possible, NHTSA created video, radio, digital and social media assets, along with a campaign activation toolkit to enable safety partners and state-level departments of transportation to get the message out to their localities. The campaign included national television, radio, digital, social and out-of-home tactics to deliver the message that speeding wrecks lives. THE STRATEGY: Research conducted by NHTSA found that the target audience (18- to 44-year-old men) tends to speed out of convenience. They have a belief that they drive safely although they speed. They view speeding as a low-risk behavior and cite external factors like road conditions as reasons that speeding could become dangerous. They need to be awakened to the fact that speeding itself is unsafe and increases crash risk and severity. They also need to be convinced that speeding is inconvenient if they’re caught by law enforcement. They are quick to pick apart unrealistic outcomes or scenarios, so the final creative needed to be highly believable and relatable. THE PRODUCTION: Working with Olivier Gondry (director) and Partizan (production company), we sought to tell two believable and relatable stories that would tear down the target audience’s deeply rooted beliefs about speeding. “Look at the Damage” shows three crash scenarios that were rebuilt with input from crash experts from real-life crash reports. It plainly and directly addresses the fact that speeding is dangerous at any speed. “Consequences” uses a familiar Rube Goldberg machine to take the viewer on a visual rollercoaster through the consequences of getting a speeding ticket. It reminds the viewer that it’s not just the ticket itself but all the related consequences that make speeding inconvenient.