Alcohol-related harm costs New Zealand $4.9 billion dollars annually. It’s a problem, largely driven by the binge-drinking culture of those aged 18-24.This group see getting plastered as the gateway to an epic night out. But, if you're so drunk you're not present and don't remember it, was it really that epic?We set out to incentivise moderation, by using this group’s well-documented ‘fear of missing out’ against them – showing them that, by drinking less, they could hold onto and remember their nights.
We told the story of the Department of Lost Nights – an organisation of overall-clad removal men from another dimension. When you’ve had one too many, you step out of your head and they step in, work order in hand, to repossess your memories. A gently-nodding mannequin lookalike is installed in your place, while you’re escorted to a pepto-pink, otherworldly waiting room, where you see your lost memories wheeled away, one-by-one, like dioramas from a natural history museum.