Drunk Driving Prevention (Ad Council / NHTSA)

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Also: Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk · Drinking & Driving Can Kill A Friendship

“Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk”

The Ad Council and NHTSA began a national drunk-driving prevention campaign in 1983, first aimed at 16-24 year-olds with 'Drinking & Driving Can Kill A Friendship'. PSAs from 1990 asked friends to step in and stop a drunk person from driving, under the line 'Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk'. The campaign still runs; 'Buzzed Driving Is Drunk Driving' replaced the line in 2005.

Years: 1983–now
Country: United States
Topic: Alcohol Impaired driving
Asks people to: Stop Talk to someone
Strategy: Simple instruction Social norms
Channel: Print Radio TV
Audience: Young adults Youth
AEF says the 1983 work targeted 16-24 year-olds (42% of fatal alcohol-related crashes); the Christian Science Monitor (1985) gives drivers 18-26.

Evidence

Self-reportedUnknown

Ad Council history (via AEF) says 'at one point' more than 68% of Americans exposed to the ads had taken action to stop someone driving drunk. Another site attributes 62% to the Ad Council. No survey year, sample or method is given, and no independent evaluation was found. The PSA won a 1984 CLIO.

Sponsor (who paid)

Ad Council Ad Council (pro bono), campaign producer
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), U.S. Department of Transportation Federal government, sponsor; paid production and distribution

Credits (who made it)

Leber Katz Partners Creative, 1983-1985 source
Wells, Rich, Greene NY Creative, 1990-1996 source
DDB Worldwide, New York Creative source

Related campaigns

Designated Driver Campaign (Harvard Alcohol Project) 1988–now
Buzzed Driving Prevention 2005–now

Sources

Research notes

Credits checked 2026-10-22 against fetched pages: Leber Katz Partners (Christian Science Monitor, 20 December 1985: 'The campaign, which first aired in 1983, was created by Leber, Katz Partners'; the Ad Council Historical File RS 13/2/207 has a Leber Katz file dated April 1982), Wells, Rich, Greene NY (RS 13/2/207 finding aid, files from November 1990 to December 1996 catalogued 'Department of Transportation/Wells, Rich, Greene NY'). DDB Worldwide, New York (Ad Council historic-campaign page as archived in December 2010, 'Volunteer Agency: DDB Worldwide, New York', no years). Corrected 2026-10-22: DDB source moved from the AEF page, which names no agency, to the archived Ad Council page, and its years removed; Wells, Rich, Greene NY added for 1990-1996. Conflict: Forbes (2010) says DDB Worldwide created the tagline in 1990, but the archive catalogues the 1990-96 files to Wells, Rich, Greene NY; the 2010 Ad Council page may name the agency of record at that time rather than in 1990. DDB's start year is open. The date of the tagline is disputed. AEF says 'Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk' arrived in 1990, which matches the move to Wells, Rich, Greene, but the Ad Council's own pages call the 1983 work the 'Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk' campaign. Leber Katz account manager Susan Wershba Zerin's recollection that the phrase began as an internal strategy statement was seen only in search snippets (unverified). Posters for 'drinking and driving' are among the digitized items in RS 13/2/218. Illinois Archives retrieval: RS 13/2/207 Historical File, box 41 folders 1-11, box 143 folders 14-18 and box 42 folders 1-7. Other candidate series are 13/2/204 Campaign Listings 1942-92, 13/2/218 Campaign Posters 1942-90, 13/2/214 Television PSAs 1963, 1971-92, 1997, 13/2/219 Campaign Files 1966-2004 and 13/2/280 Campaign Video Recordings. Links (#82) checked 2026-10-23: Ad Council pages from the Wayback Machine (adcouncil.org's old campaign pages), the Our History timeline or its case studies; dead campaign sites point to a Wayback copy from the campaign years.

Record cases/ad-council-drunk-driving-prevention.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign