This tollbooth attendant may haunt your dreams

Shudder.

Waka Kotahi (the New Zealand Transport Agency), along with FCB New Zealand, has launched a public awareness campaign as part of its 'Road to Zero' strategy.

The agencies are not messing around, as evidenced by the TV spot above. It puts a new spin on the term "road toll", aiming to remind people not to become immune when they hear accident statistics, because every accident involves real people who must deal with the devastating after-effects.

Mission accomplished, in a most disturbing fashion. The dreamlike narrative is very effective. And Ad Nut won't soon forget the toll attendant and her demand, nor the father trying to live with whatever happened.

The performances are great. And here Ad Nut would like to once again urge brands and agencies to credit actors when they tout their campaigns. Without humans to transmute a script into believable emotion and deliver it to the camera, you'd have nothing but a script.

Anyway, the NZ government has a vision of zero road deaths, and specifically wants to reduce deaths and serious injuries on New Zealand roads by 40% by 2030 (from 2018 levels).

The TVC above, FCB's first work for Waka Kotahi, launched in February (sorry, it sometimes takes Ad Nut's friends in far-flung places time to send things Ad Nut's way). It represents the first phase of a campaign that also includes online, print, cinema, OOH, digital/social and partnerships. 

In Ad Nut's book, this is a worthy successor to a memorable 2013/2014 campaign from the same government department, at the time working with Clemenger BBDO Wellington: see "NZ Transport Agency stops time to deliver safety message".

CREDITS

Client: Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
Creative Agency: FCB Aotearoa
Media Agency: FCB Media
Production Company: 3&7
Director: Steve Ayson

Producer: Larisa Tiffin
DOP: Marty Williams
Editor: Luke Haigh
Online: Blockhead
Music: Cam Ballantyne
Photographer: Steve Boniface

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.