In the last year in Colombia, drunk-driving was responsible for 887 deaths. Moreover, according to reports, 7 out of every 10 victims of drunk-driving related accidents were friends of the driver driving in an intoxicated state. With this in mind, the brand that supports friendships communicated in a novel way the classic “Don’t drink and drive” message with the main objective of reducing the number of road traffic accidents during the end-of-year festivities, a time when Colombians increase their consumption of alcohol.

887 road traffic accidents due to drunk-driving were reported in Colombia, 7 out of 10 victims of these accidents were friends of the driver responsible. The brand that supports friendships proposed to put an end to friends killing friends. Using its product, it converted the act of opening a beer bottle into a symbolic demonstration of a car crash and a reminder of what can happen when a drunk-driver drives his/her friends home. This was done by changing the tradition beer-bottle caps for a special edition in black color with images of various car fronts that folded over, or “crashed” at the moment of opening with a bottle opener (drinking from a bottle is the main way Colombians drink bee

In advance, in different print and digital media, the brand put hundreds of black points containing messages about the consequences of drinking and driving. This generated curiosity in both the media and general public, without people knowing that a brand was behind it. The launch coincided with the end-of-year festivities, a time when there is a high-alcohol consumption. More than 400 million of the special-edition bottle caps were produced, that’s over 10 times the population of Colombia. In addition, the brand contacted influencers and opinion leaders, giving them personalized kits with the new beer bottle caps and explaining the idea behind the codes, that they could be used to get a free taxi ride home. In this way the consumer could play a part in taking care of his/her friends. Finally, the message was reinforced via different media such as OOH and social media.

People saw how the brand took the risk to use its product to send an impactful message of awareness and responsible consumption. The result was that more than 50,000 people arrived home safely using the taxi codes on the back of the beer bottle caps with a 5% reduction in road accidents compared to the same period the previous year. The campaign also generated 2.6 million dollars in earned media. We used the beer bottle caps as a channel for an ingenious message, spread in a different way. We gave the classic “Don’t drink and drive” message to Colombians, but this time with results.