Partnership for a Drug-Free Canada (PDFC) is employing reverse psychology to get its message across with “Someone Else’s Kid,” a national awareness campaign that warns against the dangers of drug-impaired driving.
Developed by Union, it is the first work from the Toronto-based creative agency since it was named AOR last year. The impetus for the campaign was the insight that many parents feel like driving high is only something that “other kids” do.
Research conducted by PDFC and Union showed that 78% of parents believe their child would never be in a car driven by someone who was high. However a recent study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health revealed that almost one in four high school seniors admitted to having been a passenger with a high driver behind the wheel.
The effort aims to shake parents out of their complacency by overtly telling them they don’t need to bother watching the ads. A 30-second TV spot, titled “Not For You” features a black-clad spokeswoman who immediately informs viewers that, “I’m here to talk about a serious message that you don’t need to pay any attention to.” Shot in black-and-white, the ad employs the usual PSA clichés such as tears and dramatic close ups, and ends with the campaign’s tagline, “It’s always someone else’s kid. Until it’s not.”
“We needed to not be like every other PSA,” said Vikki Thorpe, group account director at Union. “We decided to pull every one of those clichés into a single idea to basically wave our flag. It’s reverse psychology — ‘don’t listen to this ad,’ and then you’re kind of drawn into that ad, and then boom we’ve got you.”
All creative drives Canadians to CanadaDrugFree.org, which provides resources and information about drug-impaired driving, along with tips for talking to kids about it. According to Thorpe, encouraging parents to actually talk to their kids face-to-face is one of the main objectives of the campaign.
“The way we use technology today kind of lulls parents into feeling much more secure about their relationship with their kids… that they’re an even better parent than their parent was because they know where their kid is at all times,” Thorpe said.
“What we were striving to do in this campaign is to jolt people out of that, and say ‘you maybe don’t know your kid as well as you think you do, and it could happen to you no matter how closely connected you feel to your kid. Have the conversation with your kid, it’s not enough to check in by text a few times a day.’”
Two other 15-second TV spots are also running, and additional elements include radio, print, digital and OOH. The same creative is running in Quebec.
“Someone Else’s Kid” will run until July. Union is working on a second pro bono effort on behalf of the non-profit organization, which will focus on prescription drug abuse. That campaign is slated to launch in mid-July.
