Look at my other post in this threads to see where I'm coming from, but - I don't think these things work well. Probably statistics prove me wrong. On the other hand, statistics prove me wrong every time I complain about Harry Potter.

Is a morbid/overly scary scene really going to reach the people that are (for all I know) most vulnerable to 'drink driving' (Never heard that combination before, not a native speaker, copying here)? I'd set a good bet on 'no way'. It's either 'stupid' (You know.. You can do it better. You are a GOOD driver) or 'lecturing' (Thank you. YES, I know that it is bad. YES, I will be careful).

In Germany we used to have things like that for speeding. You're on a street without speed limit, but the road sign shows a lone guy, looking at a black framed picture of his family, subtitled 'Don't go too fast' or something.

I failed to see any reaction among the people that passed by to that and I know that I don't like trying to play with emotions/wasn't vulnerable to these things. Still, we have thousands of those, in wild varieties (small girls without her parents seem to be the rage right now).

In the uk at least, there was a large amount of misinformation and bad knowledge about the real effects, what happens at one drink/two drinks, etc. It's also a case of- it's so horrific, that unless it happens to affect you directly, you tend to ignore it- it's too much to take in.

I think these campaigns were incredibly effective at reminding everyone that zero-tolerance is the only safe option, and that the results are catastrophic.

Remember, it's as much about reminding normal/decent people to take their more vulnerable friend's keys away from them before they do something stupid. Peer pressure is a strong motivator not to do it again. :)

While I do think the UK PSAs are probably very effective, I don't think it necessarily holds that the countries with the most shocking PSAs are the ones with the smallest drink-driving problems.

I don't have any data to back it up, but I do remember seeing statistics which showed that, after the successful PSA campaigns in the 90s, the UK had to start seriously considering the effect of the road quality as contributory to accidents.

Reading between the lines:

a: car manufacturers make safer cars

b: driving education is both better than it ever has been, and one of the best in the world (but there's still some to go! see scandinavia's skid pan training and such for ALL drivers!)

c: driver error is a lot smaller than it used to be.

Yes, there are still those who will drink and drive. I think we need to go thru one or two more generations before this is essentially eradicated. But the gulf of difference between the UK and US attitude to this is astounding.