Printer friendly page

Drug drive radio campaign picks up award

A radio advert featuring the voice of a father whose son was killed by a drug driver has won a gold award at the North East Fresh marketing awards.

In the commercial, John Fisher tells the story of how his son George was hit and killed by a driver high on drugs in Northumberland in 2001.

"I am really proud to receive this award," John Fisher said. "I wanted to tell the story of what happened to George and maybe help prevent what happened to us, happening to anyone else."

The campaign, Drug Driving.... you'd be Off Your Head, is due to be rolled out across other areas of the UK. Since the campaign was launched, drug related road deaths in the Durham police force area have reduced from 12 in 2002 to zero in 2004.

In the 17-25 target age group, awareness of the penalties for driving under the influence of illegal drugs has risen from almost nil when the campaign started to over 40% of those surveyed two years later.

Alan Kennedy chair of LARSOA north east, said: "No one could fail to be moved by John's story and we are grateful that he is prepared to speak out to help us tackle this growing issue."