Description

78% of drivers who die in drug-related crashes have more than one substance in their system. Prescription medication is often one of them. The combined side effects are dangerously deceptive.

Introducing the Mixed Medication range, common combinations found in deceased drivers. Each product was designed for experts to unpack the harm, unsettling road users. 

The range gained attention from medical professionals, drivers and Police. Mixed Driving has been established as a new state of impairment, building public support for roadside testing of 20 legal drugs in 2023.

Brief 

Our task was to introduce a new state of driver impairment, ‘Mixed Driving’; mixing prescription medicine with another substance: alcohol, other legal prescription medication or cannabis.

We needed to establish ‘Mixed Driving’ and provoke public support for the introduction of roadside testing of common prescription medications.

Solution  

The Mixed Medication range: common combinations found in deceased drivers. Each was designed for experts to unpack the harm, leveraging the voice of trusted medical experts to unsettle road users.

Each touchpoint introduced ‘Mixed Driving’ into the cultural vernacular, twisting the visual language of pharmaceuticals to subvert our audiences’ assumptions about medications and the dangers of mixing.

Results 

The Mixed Medication range gained attention from medical professionals, drivers and Police. The term ‘Mixed Driving’ is now being used within the medical context too – prompting patients, doctors and pharmacists to discuss potential side-effects of mixing their meds.

‘Mixed Driving’ has now been established as a new state of impairment, helping Waka Kotahi, New Zealand’s road safety agency, build public support for the government’s introduction of roadside testing of 20 legal drugs in 2023.

The campaign reached 4.5 million people in the first 2 weeks of launch, 90% of the population, and generated 22 million impressions.