PSA Takes Distracted Driving to the Limit

This is one intense ride

A pair of teens engage in non-stop social media hijinks while driving around town. They’re distracted by their phone, extremely so, and risking their lives with every turn of the wheel.

A game of digital roulette plays out in this three-minute film from The Martin Agency and Le Pac director Quentin Deronzier:

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“We realized that there hasn’t been much work around the dangers of not only consuming content while driving but also creating content while driving,” Martin creatives Julian Cohen and Rushil Nadkarni tell Muse.

“The idea of this film being the last three-and-a-half minutes of our main character’s life allows the viewer to see and feel how quickly everything can be taken from you,” they say. “It was important from a creative standpoint to get lost in the story.”

We’re of two minds about this slow-burn approach.

On the one hand, such cinéma vérité style should keep viewers on edge. The tension mounts with each screen swipe and line of silly banter between the dude. They have no idea what’s almost certainly coming, even if the audience does.

That said, perhaps it’s too much build-up. Will folks hang in?

Also, the guys’ schtick wears thin after a while. One gets so easily distracted. Some audiences might find this ride less compelling.

Cohen and Nadkarni respond: “It would have been easy and obvious to write a film in which the driver looks at their phone and immediately gets in an accident. Our goal was to reflect the false sense of confidence we get every time we engage with our device.”

“You might not get in an accident the first time you look at your phone. Maybe not the second, either. But those two times you got away with it build up your confidence to look for a third and fourth time. And that’s unfortunately when it happens.”