A cheetah in a leather jacket drives a convertible through the desert, hands an officer his driver’s license, then sits at a judge’s bench

NHTSA committed to the driver who feels fine. With four campaigns that made the consequences real, immediate and unavoidable.

Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over, drugged driving, No Big Deal and Today’s the Day. Four campaigns across broadcast, digital and a 360° interactive film.

Everyone already knows impaired driving kills. The gap is between knowing and recognizing: the moment an impaired driver decides they’re fine.

Four campaigns closed that gap from four directions, with the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, the U.S. DOT and law enforcement across the country behind them.

The brief

Impairment hides from the impaired.

Nobody pours a third drink thinking they’re about to make a fatal decision. Nobody takes a cold pill and cancels the drive home. Regardless of the drug, judgment goes first, and with it, the ability to notice.

Decades of prevention messaging had trained people to tune the warning out. These campaigns stopped lecturing the obvious bad actors and started talking to the person who passed every internal check and missed the actual line.

A man stands on a red scissor lift above a street, then drifts off at the wheel of an orange dump truck as it breaks through a parking gate

The campaigns

Four campaigns, one strategic spine.

Today’s the Day ran one-day-only ads that made the consequences feel immediate: you might think you’re lucky, but is today the day? The drugged-driving work gave prescription meds and over-the-counter remedies the same gravity as alcohol.

No Big Deal was the thirteenth year of Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over, and the first time NHTSA put audiences inside the aftermath instead of warning them away from the cause: a 360° film from the gurney, the destruction revealing itself as you drag the frame.

A crowded bar with pool tables at night, then a finger pressing a jukebox’s red buttons — Today’s the Day

A coaster reading “Dec. 14” on the rail of a pool table, then a young man in a bar, looking up — Today’s the Day, Dec. 14

Firefighters move through red and blue smoke toward a burning car at night — No Big Deal

The craft

A cheetah with a DUI, built for real.

Spotted While Driving High put a cheetah behind the wheel, then in front of Judge Cheetah’s bench.

The sets were practical: a real courtroom, prop driver’s licenses down to the spotted hair color, hospital monitors framed for 4K. PSA work is the hardest writing in advertising. The craft is what keeps it from feeling like homework.

The cheetah at the wheel of a convertible, a police car’s lights flashing behind

Judge Cheetah’s bench: plush cheetah, gavel and nameplate on a practical courtroom set

Prop driver’s license for Mara Meru Cheetah. Hair color: spotted

Behind the scenes: the cheetah performer on the camera monitor

Behind the scenes: the hospital-bed scene framed on the camera monitor

The first

Year thirteen of the franchise. The first time inside the aftermath.

The 360° film broke a format NHTSA had held for over a decade. Prevention gave way to consequence, and you can’t un-see what you just panned to.

Four national campaigns, one uncomfortable truth, and a federal client that took a creative risk on every one of them.

Credits

Tombras

Pilots and flight attendants playing #CheerCart carts as instruments in an airplane hangar

Next case

Delta Air Lines

Shorty Awards finalist