Media Statement
For immediate release
Date 9 September 2005

Find out why you really can’t trust your mates this Sunday

You can’t always trust your mates – they’re liable to downtrou’ you in public, knock over a Portaloo with you inside, glad wrap your toilet or sabotage your best efforts to pull chicks at parties. That’s been the message of a series of ads screening on youth-oriented TV for the past six weeks.

The final instalment in the series goes to air this Sunday (September 11), showing another reason why mates can’t always be trusted – they’re liable to kill you if they drive drunk.

Over 40 percent of all alcohol-related crashes each year involve drink-drivers aged 15-24, primarily male. These crashes kill or injure more than 900 people every year.

Research shows that while most young males wouldn’t get into a car with a drunk stranger, the same doesn’t apply to friends. “They trust their mates implicitly, they usually think their mates are good drivers, and if the mate says he’s OK to drive it’s not questioned,” says Land Transport NZ Advertising Manager Rachel Prince.

The ‘don’t trust your mates’ campaign targets passengers of young drink-drivers as another means of changing their behaviour. The campaign uses humour to engage the audience, and the element of surprise to challenge the decision to ride with driver who has been drinking.

“Ultimately we want young men to realise that they need to protect themselves, and even a good mate can make a bad decision,” Ms Prince said.

ENDS

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