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Drink Drive Mime
Kent Highway Services and 250 pupils from The Towers School, Ashford, recreate an anti-drink driving mime for the festive season. Kent TV saw the performance outside Maidstone County Hall. More Details View Transcript
View Synopsis
Includes a performance of the 'Drinking and Driving Wrecks Lives' advert by 250 people.
View Synopsis
JIM EVELEIGH reports.
A silent television advert is at the centre of Kent Highway Services's hard hitting multimedia Christmas anti-drink driving campaign. And to get the message across of the county biggest ever such campaign, two hundred and fifty young actors recreated the mime featured in the commercial outside Maidstone County Hall in Maidstone. The students of the Tower School and Sixth Form Centre in Ashford had learnt the mime just that morning with the help of a professional director and actors.
STEVE HORTON, Kent Highway Services: "The reason we chose two hundred and fifty young actors to help us out today is that number is significant; that's the amount of people who are killed or injured on the roads in Kent as a result of drink drive crash. And what makes it all the more tragic in those situations is that nobody forces anyone to have a drink and then drive it's a choice that some individuals made and those individuals are costing the lives and causing injury to 250 people for no reason at all.
"We're using television advertising, we're using cinema advertising, we've got large busbacks, we've got large ad vans like the one behind me, we've got billboard sites, so we're trying to get the message out as much as possible. And we're also going into several of the towns in Kent with mime artists to perform this mime in amongst the shoppers so we're hoping that'll be quite a surprise for them and perhaps again capture their attention."
The use of silence in the advert differs from previous years' campaigns.
PHILIP CLAYTON SMITH, Star of Advert: "I think a lot of people have become slightly desensitised by the approach of many of the anti drink driving commercials, they are quite gory. I mean, this is quite obviously no sound, just the mime, and you cannot help but be drawn in, basically. And it makes you think, you know, because there's no dialogue. You literally are like, 'what's this guy up to? What's he doing? What's the message?' And while you're doing that, you're watching."
And it seems as though the young actors involved have benefited in a variety of ways.
WESLEY CARROLL, Director of Performing Arts, The Towers School: "The students have obviously gained a lot today through working with a professional director and professional actors as well. They would have developed themselves as performers and learnt new skills and realised they could do things that perhaps they didn't think they could do before."
ANONYMOUS MALE: "I enjoyed getting the message across, because obviously people watch the news and adverts and they see these messages and they don't actually take notice of them, but I think the way we've done it today is a good way to get the message across not to drink and drive, 'cos we all know what the outcome of it can be and stuff like that."
ANONYMOUS MALE: "It's been interesting today, it's been really different, but I think the most enjoyable bit was meeting other people who also don't agree with drink driving and all that. It's been nice to see that there are other people who are doing things about it rather than just doing the adverts on the telly."
And with such a big campaign this year, there really are no excuses for ignoring the message: drink driving wrecks lives and breaks hearts.
A silent television advert is at the centre of Kent Highway Services's hard hitting multimedia Christmas anti-drink driving campaign. And to get the message across of the county biggest ever such campaign, two hundred and fifty young actors recreated the mime featured in the commercial outside Maidstone County Hall in Maidstone. The students of the Tower School and Sixth Form Centre in Ashford had learnt the mime just that morning with the help of a professional director and actors.
STEVE HORTON, Kent Highway Services: "The reason we chose two hundred and fifty young actors to help us out today is that number is significant; that's the amount of people who are killed or injured on the roads in Kent as a result of drink drive crash. And what makes it all the more tragic in those situations is that nobody forces anyone to have a drink and then drive it's a choice that some individuals made and those individuals are costing the lives and causing injury to 250 people for no reason at all.
"We're using television advertising, we're using cinema advertising, we've got large busbacks, we've got large ad vans like the one behind me, we've got billboard sites, so we're trying to get the message out as much as possible. And we're also going into several of the towns in Kent with mime artists to perform this mime in amongst the shoppers so we're hoping that'll be quite a surprise for them and perhaps again capture their attention."
The use of silence in the advert differs from previous years' campaigns.
PHILIP CLAYTON SMITH, Star of Advert: "I think a lot of people have become slightly desensitised by the approach of many of the anti drink driving commercials, they are quite gory. I mean, this is quite obviously no sound, just the mime, and you cannot help but be drawn in, basically. And it makes you think, you know, because there's no dialogue. You literally are like, 'what's this guy up to? What's he doing? What's the message?' And while you're doing that, you're watching."
And it seems as though the young actors involved have benefited in a variety of ways.
WESLEY CARROLL, Director of Performing Arts, The Towers School: "The students have obviously gained a lot today through working with a professional director and professional actors as well. They would have developed themselves as performers and learnt new skills and realised they could do things that perhaps they didn't think they could do before."
ANONYMOUS MALE: "I enjoyed getting the message across, because obviously people watch the news and adverts and they see these messages and they don't actually take notice of them, but I think the way we've done it today is a good way to get the message across not to drink and drive, 'cos we all know what the outcome of it can be and stuff like that."
ANONYMOUS MALE: "It's been interesting today, it's been really different, but I think the most enjoyable bit was meeting other people who also don't agree with drink driving and all that. It's been nice to see that there are other people who are doing things about it rather than just doing the adverts on the telly."
And with such a big campaign this year, there really are no excuses for ignoring the message: drink driving wrecks lives and breaks hearts.
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