Facts:- more and more people are drinking and driving- the core target: people driven by an 'I'm above the law' attitude and the 24/7 party schedule, and youngsters who are almost impossible to reach through regular media.- police perception: let's just say it's not great and the target phases-out everything they sayThe ChallengeHow can you drive people not to drink and not use an authority POV, while also fixing the image problem of the police?The Idea: Bring Death to the club's doors.We've tackled directly the perception 'it cannot happen to me', bringing the subject of death close to both the moment of alcohol consumption and the possible driving after - with all its implicationsWe decided to use a Romanian tradition so we re-created the traditional burial ritual with the help of:- a group of mourners (real ones) - old ladies instead of the classical sexy promoters- a funeral song with a drinking tailor-made message- traditional funeral towels, which were tied by the mirrors of all cars (another Romanian funeral custom) in front of the club with a tailor-made messageThe mourners interacted with the people getting out of the club and going to their cars, trying to convince them not to drive if they have drunk, then the towels gave the final blow to driving after drinking.The approach made people think, share and talk about it. Everybody agreed that this is a new kind of police they are discovering.

We decided to use a Romanian tradition within a modern environment, so we re-created the traditional burial ritual:First, a group of mourners (real ones), old ladies instead of the classical sexy promoters, interacted with the people getting out of the club and going to their cars, trying to convince them not to drive if they have been drinking, singing a funeral song with a drinking tailor-made messageThen, replacing the classic wind-shield leaflets, traditional funeral towels were tied by the mirrors of all cars in front of the club (another Romanian funeral custom) with a tailor-made message.We also filmed the whole activation "undercover" and posted the film on YouTube so that those who didn't live the experience were able to see it and share it.The shocking/dramatic approach (designed so it would not appear as a message from authorities, so that it would become credible, true, viral) made people think.

Beyond the impact of lasting a lifetime for those that interacted with our mourners and the towels, the movie posted on YouTube proved to be an instant hit: 2 days after posting it, the top 4 tv stations in Romania (ProTV, Antena1, RealitateaTV, PrimaTV) broadcasted the story in braking news, praising it (a first for a police program) and it became a viral hit collecting an ever increasing number of views (9,771 in the first 24hours), postings, Facebook posts, links, comments and 'likes' - like no other program initiated by the Romanian Police ever.The campaign made such a big impact that the Romanian Police decided to extend the activation to a national level and have a press conference about the new way of communicating But the biggest win was that everybody appreciated both the initiative and the message, and comments of people discovering a new police emerged.