Colorado transportation officials are trying a new approach to discourage drunken driving – and it’s practically guaranteed to generate a steady stream of attention.
A new tool will help deliver the message right to the place where the target demographic – young men – is most likely to frequent over the weekend.
The bar urinal.
'Interactive Urinal Communicators' will go way beyond a simple poster at eye level, says Amy Ford, CDOT Communications Director. They’ll instead speak right to you.
"What they do is sit in the bottom of the urinal, and they’re motion-sensored," Ford explained delicately. "And so – when something starts to go… they will actually start to play a message. And they will play our 15-second message about 'Drink and Don’t Drive.'"
Check out the message for yourself:
Wait, so what happened to the old message about not drinking and driving?
"The reality is, the 'Don’t Drink & Drive' campaigns that we’ve been using have been something that people have heard and seen for a long time," Ford said. "One of the things we’re wanting to do is to flip that on [its] head a little bit, and get them to pay attention in a way they never have before."
Ford acknowledges the talking urinal cakes are a bit unconventional. It’s all about drawing new attention to a message that’s all too often tuned out by the people who need to hear it most.
"It targets the main target audience we’re looking at, which is young men from the ages of 21 to 34 who unfortunately are the ones who typically will drive while impaired, and consequently cause the most fatalities," Ford said.
So gents, be on the lookout. The Interactive Urinal Communicators will roll out in bars across Denver, Fort Collins and Boulder ahead of the Labor Day weekend.
