An obituary featuring a 17-year-old "Nelson Lim Yu Han" was published in the media yesterday. Under a photograph of the teenager, a sentence of the obituary read: "Dearly missed by a loving wife, children and grandchildren that he will never have".
A disclaimer on the advertisement stated clearly that it was "a public service announcement provided by the Traffic Police Department and the Singapore Road Safety Council (SRSC)" and that the person was "fictitious".
Sales executive Philip Wong he felt the ad was "in bad taste". He said: "I get the impression they want to get the message across ... but, surely, they could have done it better."
However, advertising agency Kinetic creative director Pann Lim said: "I don't see the ads as shocking and neither were they done badly ... I felt that they had a message to convey and in the ad they put it across clearly."
The agency behind the advertisement was Salt Creative. Its managing partner Mr Low Cheh Chuan, said the idea was to convey "a grave message in the most effective way".
Said Mr Low: "The essence of the ad is that you will rob this teenager of life if he becomes a victim of a drink-driving accident."
According to Mr Low, the picture of the model in the obituary was digitally altered and consent was also sought from his family.
When contacted, an SRSC spokesperson said it agreed to the idea because it wanted a clear message to highlight the drastic consequences of drink driving.
The spokesperson said: "The creative agency has ... taken into consideration, the cultural taboo and the local audience's threshold concerning the use of an 'obituary' as an advertisement concept."
The advertisement is part of the Traffic Police's latest Anti-Drink-Drive Campaign, which will run from December 2010 to this month.
A police spokesperson said the advertisement serves as a "realistic reminder" to the public that drink driving can kill.
In 2010, 22 people died and 182 people were injured as a result of such accidents.
ORIGINAL SOURCE
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