“I drank water in between drinks.”

Everyone who drives under the influence has an excuse. It's only after a crash that those excuses sound as foolish as they really are.

That insight became the core idea behind this film for VRT, Belgium's national public broadcaster. By literally hearing these excuses while simultaneously witnessing the reality of road accidents, audiences are confronted with a powerful and unsettling contrast. Bringing these excuses into the open and placing them alongside their potential consequences strips them of their power. They lose their credibility. Their sense of normality.

The campaign gained additional relevance and media attention through Tom Waes, one of Belgium's most recognizable TV presenters and a prominent face of VRT. A before the campaign, Waes himself was involved in a drunk-driving crash. By featuring him in the film and using his own excuses and crash as part of the story, we turned the issue into a national conversation.