Nottinghamshire Police has launched a fresh campaign aimed at highlighting the real-life fallout of getting behind the wheel after drinking or taking drugs.
The force revealed that more than 1,435 individuals were convicted of drink or drug-driving offences across the county over the last year.
It explained that while many of the drink-driving convictions did not physically injure anyone, every one of them faced severe personal and professional repercussions following their conviction and subsequent driving ban.
Rather than focusing on the most devastating outcomes of impaired driving, the initiative aims to take a different approach.
The video uses humorous social media clips and promotional materials placed in pubs, bars and restaurants to drive home how a single poor decision can upend careers, relationships and family life.
It centres on three fictional characters, each grappling with the fallout of losing their driving licence, with one depicting a middle-aged mother unsuccessfully trying to keep a young child entertained while stuck at home.
Another follows a young man awkwardly attempting to confess his conviction to his girlfriend, a scenario brought to life in a video titled "Drink-Driving Kills Your Charisma," in which his mother turns up to give the couple a lift on their date.
The third scenario portrays an older man enduring an uncomfortable encounter with a former acquaintance on the golf course.
Each short film was designed to prompt viewers to consider how the shame, embarrassment and day-to-day inconvenience of a driving ban would affect their own lives.
Beyond the videos, the campaign extends into physical spaces, with beer mats, posters and table talkers distributed to licensed venues throughout the city and county.
Sergeant Jim Carrington, a veteran roads policing officer who volunteered to appear in the campaign, said: "I've arrested a lot of drink drivers over the years and also heard just about every excuse under the sun.
"I distinctly remember one young lad who I arrested after someone else crashed into him. He was breathalysed as a matter of routine and found to be over the limit after having a couple of drinks with friends."
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The young man had aspired to join the police, but his conviction instantly ended that ambition. "He hadn't caused the kind of death and destruction I have seen all too often in my career, but he had killed his future career prospects," Sergeant Carrington said.
Superintendent Louise Mayo, who leads operational support at Nottinghamshire Police, explained the thinking behind the shift in tone.
She said: "Nationally, we've focused for a long time on the most dramatic and tragic consequences of drink-driving: the lives lost, and the devastated families left behind.
"Some of those are repeat offenders who will ignore any kind of public messaging, but we know that others are just 'normal' and mostly good people who are making the wrong choices, like driving on the morning after a night out or having that extra drink with lunch before getting behind the wheel."
Sergeant Carrington said he backed the campaign because he wants motorists to reflect on what a conviction could mean for them personally.
"I want people out there to think about the consequences a drink-driving conviction could have on their own lives and take appropriate precautions to avoid one," he said.
Superintendent Mayo expressed hope that the campaign's "light-hearted messaging that goes with it can make even some of those people change their behaviour, then it will have been worthwhile".
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