Every year more than 125 youngsters between the age of 18 and 24 die on Belgian roads. Most of these accidents are due to speeding, tiredness and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

For years the Belgian Institute for Road Safety used shocking advertising to get the attention of these young drivers. But they never seem to listen. That’s why we looked for another way to reach our target group, to show, make them feel and think about the consequences of reckless driving: the BIRS created the story of 21 Grams Short.*

Together with Ozark Henry, a famous Belgian singer-songwriter, they developed a song with the voices of two young men – Kevin & Maxime – who both died in a car crash.

Instead of launching a classic campaign, the song was released on all national radio stations, without any reference to the Belgian Institute for Road Safety.

Two weeks later, after having a lot of airtime, the true story behind the song was revealed during a press conference.

As intended, the impressive media coverage of this extraordinary story became a very emotional and effective way to reach our target audience. A traffic safety ‘campaign’ unlike any other, created with a limited budget, and provoking a national discussion.

(*) 21 Grams Short is a reference to Maxim’s favourite movie 21 Grams. Apparently that’s the weight of your soul leaving your body.

Since young drivers are not influenced by governmental campaigns, and since the BIRS doesn’t have sufficient budgets to run a powerful media campaign, a different approach was necessary: to create a relevant story that brought our message, in a way so interesting the media would pick it up and bring it to our audience.

Youngsters are into music, so we asked Ozark Henry, a famous singer-songwriter, to create an original song. The song talked about two youngsters who died in traffic, about the absurdity of dying so young, and used their real voices, which made the song relevant and touching for a young audience. For them, emotion works better than a rational approach.

The single was released and got considerable airplay on all Belgian radio stations. Only then was the BIRS-involvement revealed: why the song was made, the nature of the voices, the story behind it, the making-of, some testimonials from friends & family…

BIRS is a non-commercial organization, and Ozark Henry a very popular singer in Belgium. Those factors caused a considerable attendance at the press conference. The newness of the idea caused a media coverage that surpassed what we had hoped for.

The budget for the production of the song, the video and PR was €80K. The media value was estimated at over €700K (which is a lot in a country with only 11 million inhabitants). Our story was the opening item on 4 major TV channels’ news report, it was covered by all newspapers, on radio shows and discussed on social media. The video was viewed over 50,000 times. We could never have reached the same communication power with a more traditional approach.