HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Designated Driver Campaign Marks 10th Anniversary

New findings document success

The School of Public Health (SPH) marks the tenth anniversary of its National Designated Driver Campaign this month as new data document its striking success.

"Thanks to a combination of tough laws, strict enforcement, and the voluntary actions of 67 million designated drivers, fatalities from drunk driving have fallen 31 percent over the past 10 years," said Jay Winsten, an SPH associate dean and the Frank Stanton Director of the SPH's Center for Health Communication.

The Campaign, spearheaded by the Center in collaboration with leading television networks and Hollywood studios, has demonstrated how a new social concept (the "designated driver") can be rapidly diffused through American culture via mass communication.

"When we began in late 1988, annual drunk-driving fatalities stood at 23,626, with negligible change over the previous five years," Winsten said. "Last year, fatalities reached a low of 16,189. Using 1988 data as a baseline, more than 50,000 lives have been saved over the past 10 years."

Winsten cited 1998 polling data from the Roper Organization documenting widespread acceptance of the designated driver concept: 53 percent of adults who drink have served as a designated driver and/or have been driven home by one. Within this group, the popularity is highest among young adults, aged 18-29, among whom 64 percent have served as a designated driver and/or have been driven home by one. Among frequent drinkers, aged 18-29, 65 percent have served as a designated driver and/or have been driven home by one.

"By the late 1980s," Winsten recalled, "there was a need for a fresh new idea to recapture public and media interest and rejuvenate the anti-drunk-driving movement. The designated driver concept, invented in the Nordic countries, filled that role.

"My colleagues and I were attracted to the concept for several reasons. From a marketing perspective, it offers a very simple media message - an essential requirement for working effectively through mass communication. However, the concept's simplicity is the tip of an iceberg. Beneath the surface is considerable complexity: it promotes a new social norm - a new social expectation - that the driver does not drink any alcohol; it lends social legitimacy to the nondrinking option; it encourages people to plan ahead when they are going out for the evening; and it places the issue of driving-after-drinking on the interpersonal agendas of couples and small groups. In addition, the concept enjoys broad public support; engenders no opposition from economic interests; and asks for only a modest shift in behavior (e.g., it is not anti-alcohol)."

The Campaign broke new ground when television writers agreed to insert drunk-driving prevention messages, including frequent references to the use of designated drivers, into the scripts of top-rated network series. With introductions arranged by Frank Stanton, former CBS president, and Grant Tinker, former NBC chairman, Center staff held meetings with more than 250 executive producers, senior producers, and chief writers from the leading prime-time TV shows. More than 160 prime-time programs included subplots, scenes, dialogue or (in over 25 instances) entire 30-minute or 60-minute episodes supporting the Campaign.

The Campaign soon became a national movement. A broad range of prominent individuals, government agencies, national organizations, professional sports leagues, police departments, and brewers and distillers have promoted the designated driver concept.

Fueled by this overall national effort, the designated driver concept became embedded in American life and language so quickly that by 1991 the term was included in the Random House Webster's College Dictionary.