Marashi, 1

Cameron Marashi
Victoria Hamby
UWRT 1101
11/16/2014
One Too Many
Drinking and driving is a huge problem across the entire nation. According to the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an estimated 10,322 people died in
drunk driving accidents in 2012, which is roughly one third of all fatal car crashes around the
world. Charges for drunk driving can range from thousands of dollars to fines striping of your
license and jail for up to 4 months, charges can even become worse if someone faces injuries or
dies. Sadly though in 2004 1.4 million Americans were arrested for a DUI, a vast majority of
these offenders were teenagers and young adults and according to the administrative offices of
the courts eighteen teens die a day from DUI crashes. The only way to stop drunk driving is to
educate individuals on the dangers and the consequences of getting behind the wheel under the
influence of alcohol. That is why many genres of information exist to teach people this
information. For teenagers 16-18, the least responsible and the most inexperienced driver, the
genre of PSA (Public Service Announcement) would best educate them to how drunk driving can
ruin his or her life. For the college student, who has already learned how serious drinking and
driving can be, would need to refresh on the topic and be reminded of tips to avoid drunk driving
and be given advice to prevent friends from driving drunk. Perhaps the most appropriate fit for
this group of people would be the genre of a brochure. As for adults 40 +, they are typically

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much more responsible than teenagers with ages 30 to 44 making up of 24 percent of Dui
charges wile ages 20 to 30 make up around 60 percent, so comparatively adults are much less
likely to find themselves in a situation where they may drink and drive. That is why they only
need to be reminded on how serious a drunk driving charge can be. The genre best suited for
adults would be a billboard; something they could glance at on their way to work.
Teenagers make up 10 percent of drivers and yet are responsible for almost 20 percent of
all fatal drunk driving accidents in the United States (NOLO). Manny teenagers will take any
opportunity to drink any chance they were given and attempt to drive home without a second
thought about the danger they have put on themselves and others around them. This is why an
informative video meant to scare teenagers to urge them to make more responsible decisions
would be the best format to educating teenagers on drinking and driving. Typically in PSA
videos, you see an average person who looks back at the mistake of doing what the video claims
you shouldnt do and is faced with the maximum punishment for performing the act. PSA videos
are typically dark and scary and sometimes mixed with facts. The video we made showed the life
of John, who was a medical student who rarely ever broke the rules. John had been legally
drinking and slightly intoxicated and on the way home he was hit by a man three times over the
legal limit, who ended up dying in the crash. Although John lived a decent life and avoided
trouble for the most part, this act caused him to be arrested with manslaughter because he was
legally drunk. In the video my group created, we chose to feature a guy who hadnt made the
mistake yet to better show that misfortune can occur when you least expect it to. However, I did
use the worst case scenario in the video, showing how receiving one felony can prevent anyone

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from becoming a physician and how even if the other person is drunk, if you are above the legal
limit, you are at fault if the other person was injured. I also used the creepy component to really
make the message frighten teens about how dangerous driving intoxicated can be. This genre is
a great way to teach people about worst case scenarios and the visual component can help further
stress the message. There arent other genres that could possibly make the message we are trying
to get across as powerful as we need as the message that was presented.
College students face more pressure to drink and party than any other audience.
However, many college students will succumb to the pressure and drink. Despite this, most
college students understand they shouldnt drive after having more than one drink. The genre my
group chose was a brochure as a way to remind college students not to drive after drinking and
giving tips to avoid any situation where the student would be forced to drive drunk such as other
options including a designated driver, cab service or calling a parent. Brochures typically have
bulleted points and are filled with quick information for anyone to grasp. The titles stand out
with the contents of the brochure and are filled with visuals and the more official the brochure,
the more data based information it will contain. A way one can determine if the brochure
contains valid information is if it is received from a health center or other medical resource. This
aspect of brochure was perfect for our audience, we didnt want college kids to be overloaded
with information all at once and discard the brochure rather than them reading the bullets and
really seeing some statistics that would stick with them. Our brochure follows all the normal
conventions of a brochure with powerful pictures strong titles and lots of bulleted information,
within this brochure it is filled with many statistics of deaths and arrests college students

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attribute to drunk driving later motioning the consequences with the law like jail time. Finally
and most importantly the brochure gives tips in plans to the students so they dont have to find
themselves in a situation having to possibly drive while intoxicated. However the brochure was
restricted on its use of pictures, in hopes of making the brochure more serious and making the
information more credible. The only genre I believe that would be as effective as a brochure
would a flyer but I believed that all the information my group wanted to present would be forced
onto a being forced onto a single page making the flyer a jumble of unintelligent words.
According to statistics, the average American middle aged adult rarely will get in a
situation where they would be stranded somewhere and was pressured to drive drunk. Many
adults are aware of the dangers of drinking and driving, but it isnt a topic many people think
about daily. Often adults dont think to talk to their kids about drinking and driving, plan a
designated driver for the night, or even forget to stop drunken people from driving home. The
best way to prevent them from making these mistakes would be a billboard. Since most adults
drive, many will see a billboard and be reminded how serious driving intoxicated is and
hopefully influence others to make better decisions. Billboards are typically eye-catching
pictures with small text to make sure the reader who is driving past only needs a few seconds to
grasp the information shown; typically they are advertisements for companies often used to
humorously endorse the company often using bright vivid colors to catch the eye. The billboard
we used says, Its only one drink, with a bloodied hand limp next to the tire of a car. We used
the little text to big picture conventions of the billboard genre to make a short and powerful
message. There werent many conventions of the billboard genre we didnt use all of them where

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easily incorporated into the billboard. We did however stay away from the humor part of most
billboards to keep our message serious and strong. It was also difficult to incorporate bright color
into the billboard without diluting the messages power so we chose to veer away from bright
color hopefully the billboard still draws the eye in comparison to all the other billboards on the
highway. This genre fits our audience well by being in view of people once a day if they have a
certain schedule they will hear it on their commute the only other genre that I think would be
more powerful to our audience would be a radio add because that would have more exposure to
our audience daily than a billboard.
I believe our texts supplied sufficient and persuasive arguments to persuade and educate
teenagers, college students, and adults 30+ to avoid intoxicated driving. Our approach to
educating the masses went from teenagers who need the most education to college students who
need a reminder and some more education, and adults who need more of a reminder than more
information. I believe all of our genres did a sufficient job of relaying what we intended but the
PSA video would have done the best job in scaring teenagers to avoid drunk driving, while the
billboard could have been improved or even changed genre to affect and have more of an impact
on our audience.

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Citations

"Teen Driving Crash and Fatality Stats." Partner Sites. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

"GET INVOLVED." MADD - Drunk Driving Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.

"Underage DUI/DWI Laws | DrivingLaws.org." Dui.drivinglaws.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov.

2014.

"Impaired Driving: Get the Facts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, 07 Oct. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.