Young people are driving high on nitrous oxide (laughing gas).
This is creating more problems than people realise, yet no one is talking about it.
Inspired by true stories, the aim of this campaign is to portray the long-term mental trauma of what happens when using laughing gas whilst driving goes tragically wrong.
The funds raised will be going towards the filming of this campaign, as well as covering crew costs.
We're in a laughing gas (nitrous oxide) epidemic that is not getting the attention needed to fix this issue that is taking the lives of many drivers and innocent people as a result. This is only getting attention on social media. Most people don't know that this issue is currently happening, besides the victims and users.
The government has made the use of laughing gas a class C drug; but as we know, making anything illegal only makes it more desirable to have, especially in the eyes of young people.
Such a serious issue should not be going under the radar. If this issue is not addressed, this will continue to persist across the UK as a threat for everyone’s health and wellbeing. Over the last few years, there have been a number of motor accidents linked to driving whilst high on laughing gas, some even resulting in death.
A few stats to support this:
• In 2020/21, nitrous oxide was the third most used drug amongst 16-59 year olds in England and Wales according to NHS data
• It was reported that the number of N2O related traffic incidents in the city centre of Manchester increased from 31 incidents in 2020 to 71 incidents in 2021.
Lost in the news
Laughing gas has been in the news increasingly much more in the last year, with members of the Small Health Forum in Birmingham has stated the issue has been a problem for nearly 10 years. Also stating that “From back in March 2017, six years ago, we have seen the size of NO2 cartridges increase from small capsules to 640g and then 3.9kg canisters.”
The purpose of this project is to create a campaign to tackle this issue that the UK government is taking a backseat to address. It’s a full scale campaign to make young people rethink their choices around being aware of the repercussions that can come from driving high on laughing gas.
How:
The campaign will show the mental scar and PTSD that a car accident can leave on the survivor of a car accident. In this case, it shows the story of two friends on their way to a party who decide to use laughing gas to get them in the party mood. Based on the retrospective, it will also show the survivor’s present (ghost) self in the backseat forced to relive this event due to environmental sound triggers, causing the flashback.
Dramatised Storytelling is how we’ll get the attention of our target audience. Essentially a short film, powerful storytelling can create change. People are more likely to emphasise with messages told through film than through headlines and figures in news sources.
Execution:
This will be carried out with:
60” commercial: This will be the main component of the campaign that will showcase the retrospective journey of two friends on their way to a party that decide to get high off laughing gas (Balloons) to get them hyped up for the party. It’s only looking back that we see that the consequences of these actions lasted much longer than imagined.
15” Social Media Video: These shorts will be from the perspective of the passenger, capturing the footage on their phone to put the viewers in a first person view of what it looks like to see the events unfold. This realistic viewpoint will give viewers a real insight into how a fun situation can turn ugly just like that.
30” radio ad: Placed around streaming platforms such as Spotify and Soundcloud, these radio ads will hold the core creative narrative in well crafted audio driven medium.
Posters: Posters to live on digital platforms and in physical locations in and around areas such as shopping centres, bus shelters and billboards.