Advertising / Transport Accident Commission

The Transport Accident Commission (also known as Transport Accident Commission Victoria or by its initials TAC) is an Australian insurance agency that educates about safe driving based out of the State of Victoria.

Having first started in 1987, it became far more well-known in 1989 when it began to air a series of public information films that air to this day. The very first ad, titled "Girlfriend", featured a young woman who was critically injured in a drink driving-related crash caused by her boyfriend and which coined the famous slogan, "If You Drink Then Drive, You're A Bloody Idiot." While this slogan remained the most popular, several others have been created over the years as well, including "Don't Fool Yourself, Speed Kills", "Wipe Off 5", "Country People Die On Country Roads", "If You Drive On Drugs, You're Out Of Your Mind", "Belt Up or Suffer the Pain", and "Only A Little Bit Over? You Bloody Idiot."

It is essentially to Australia what the Partnership to End Addiction Is to the United States.

Tropes from a bloody idiot:

• An Arm and a Leg: The follow-up to the "Julie" ad, where the eponymous young woman was killed in a drink driving accident caused by her boyfriend on her father's birthday, shows that the boyfriend didn't end up unscathed either. In addition to facing charges in her death and having people calling him a killer, he also lost one of his legs in the crash.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • One ad has a husband and wife drive home whilst the former is on drugs, which the latter was unaware of. You would think that his driving would eventually have dire consequences for her, but he was the one to die, having been hit by a speeding car whilst pulled onto the shoulder of a highway due to his wife ordering him to let her drive due to his subpar driving and not paying attention to his surroundings.
  • "Julie" initially appears to be a car commercial due to the slow pan of the vehicle with the two occupants inside...until the female passenger begins to frantically flail her arms and the crash happens, critically injuring her boyfriend (who was drunk) and killing her instantly.
• Big "NO!": "Darren" ends with the eponymous Darren's mother crying out, "No!" after doctors inform her and his father that he has succumbed to his injuries.
• Big "OMG!": In the immediate aftermath of the "10 KPH Less" ad, you can hear a man scream "Oh, my God!" after witnessing the victim being hit by a speeding car.
• Career-Ending Injury: "Don't Get In" features a teenage girl playing Netball before getting a ride. After the inevitable crash, she suffers a severe brain injury. The final scene of the standard version sees her having to be fed by a caretaker.
• Childhood Brain Damage: The teenage girl from "Don't Get In" wound up badly injured with a debilitating head injury. We later see the damage she still suffers through after three months, five years, and, in a rare extended variant with the actual woman whose story is being dramatized, twenty years.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Discussed in one ad where a man is left permanently blinded after a car accident where he had removed his seatbelt for a few seconds to retrieve a map off of the floor. He realizes the mistake he made, but felt the consequences of it were overbearing.
• Drugs Are Bad: Whilst most of the ads' crashes are due to drink driving, on occasion a person is specifically on a drug (like ecstacy or even marijuana) when they are in an accident.
• Drunk Driver: The majority of the ads involve the results of intoxicated driving, but other ads focus on other issues as well, including speeding, being under the influence of drugs, going unbelted, driving whilst tired, distracted driving, motorcycle safety, and inexperienced drivers.
• Fate Worse than Death: One ad implies this for a young girl who was hit by a speeding man whilst on her bicycle, stating that due to the traumatic injuries she suffered, she won't be able to finish school, hold down a job, or have children.
• Fell Asleep Driving:
  • Possibly one of their most famous ads, "Night Shift", features a man picking up his girlfriend from her shift late at night and they spend the rest of the night driving. By morning, he eventually falls asleep and they crash into a lorry, killing them both instantly. It was remade several years later to show what the driver should have done instead, saving both of their lives.
  • "Drowning" features a man and his family on holiday when the wife repeatedly asks him to pull over so they can rest, get something to eat, etc. only for him to decline. Ultimately, he falls asleep and they crash the car into a lake and while he manages to escape the car, his family's fates are left ambiguous as he futilely screams for help.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: "Julie" begins peacefully, with gentle lighting and calm music, until the car crashes into a truck. If you notice, Julie, while inside the car, begins to scream (inaudibly) and raises her arms just before the crash, giving an early hint that this "car commercial" is not what it seems.
• Get Out!: The mother from the first ad, "Girlfriend", angrily orders the victim's boyfriend out of the ER to prevent him from seeing her since he was drunk and left her badly injured.
• Gorn: Some of the ads spare no details in describing or showing the gruesome outcome of car crashes. One example would be an ad where a preteen girl on a bike is hit by a car, and there are some close up shots of her laying on the ground with bloodied limbs.
• Hospital Visit Hesitation: The "Girlfriend" ad has the girl's boyfriend who caused the crash that badly injured her try to visit her in the emergency room, only for her infuriated mother to chase him away.
• Kill It with Fire: Quite a couple of ads end with a vehicle catching on fire after a crash.
  "MARK, THE CAR'S ON FIRE!"
• Manly Tears: Plenty of ads feature a man or men crying at the effects of the accident. One ad has a man, whose drink driving killed a small boy and he was now serving a prison sentence for it, crying in remorse and grief over his actions and not being able to be with his wife or their own young sons.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • "Tracy" has the aforementioned girl's friend horrified and crying that her inexperienced driving has critically injured her, even asking an official on the scene if she's going to die. Sadly, her fate is left ambiguous.
  • "Joey" plays it more straight; Joey's unnamed older brother drives the two of them home whilst both drunk and intentionally being reckless to show off. The ending has the brother badly injured in the ensuing crash and him tearfully crying out for him, bemoaning that he killed him.
  • "Courtroom" shows a woman who speeds on the motorway, swerves into the emergency lane, and runs her car over a man who was changing a tyre. Subsequently, she appears in court where a judge asks how she pleads to the charge of causing death by culpable driving. She breaks down in tears and can't answer.
• Never My Fault: A number of people in the ads try to hedge responsibility for their actions. Most infamously, a mildly injured drunk driver keeps trying to downplay his actions even as another man was left critically injured, a young girl is dead and her grief-stricken mother hugs her body, stating how he was only "a little bit over".
• Now Do It Again, Backwards: A couple of ads have this for drama:
  • One ad shows the aftermath of a young woman who was fatally struck by a car. After reversing the situation and lowering the speed, the woman was still hit, but she was only mildly injured with a bruised leg. It ends with the cop explaining the scenario and the aftermath disappearing from the road.
  • Another one displayed a motorcyclist on his way home wearing all of the protective gear, but still dying of a broken neck due to driving too fast on his bike after hitting a car. The remade scenario has him slowing down and clearing the car, however this time, both the cop and the dead motorcyclist remain on the road in the end.
• Oh, Crap!: A common reaction of those who cause a crash, especially a fatal one. One ad had a boyfriend and girlfriend (or husband and wife) in the aftermath of the crash he caused due to being intoxicated and she yelling at him because she tried to order him to hail a taxi instead. He nearly throws up when learning that the person he hit died of their injuries.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: One ad has a man going through the years being haunted by a disheveled little boy who keeps staring at him wordlessly. The man had struck and killed the boy as a young adult due to drink driving.
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • An overwhelming amount of the ads involve a parent outliving their child or children. One ad has a grandfather outliving his grandson due to driving them both whilst high on pills which led to a crash that killed the boy and left the man paralyzed.
  • "Pictures of You" and "The Ripple Effect" feature the real-life family members of people who were killed in car accidents throughout the years.
• Pinocchio Nose: One ad had a man and his conscience speak to the audience about what a "good" driver he is. When he says this in spite of his speeding and being distracted, his conscience's nose grows considerably. The ad ends with his "real" self getting into a crash.
• Recovery Sequence: One ad, "Bones", was the first commercial to show the aftermath of the life of the victim. The woman who was thrown through the windshield due to taking off her seatbelt is now left with a badly scarred face and unable to walk as a physiotherapist helps in her recovery. The ad ends with her breaking down in tears of frustration.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: "Lennon's Christmas" has a small child singing to John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" amongst the misery everyone is feeling in the ad.
• Surprise Car Crash: Subverted. Given the nature of the commercials, it's inevitable that a crash will occur for a variety of reasons.
• Taken Off Life Support: One well-known Christmas advertisement, "12 Days Of Christmas", had a Happily Married man with a pregnant wife and two small children end up critically injured after he drove drunk from an office party. Eventually ending up brain dead, his family is forced to make the difficult decision to withdraw him from medical care.
• Time Stands Still: One ad has a dramatic example where a man's speeding is about to cause the death of his wife. The commercial freezes to explain this a few seconds before impact and then resumes to the inevitable.
• Twisted Christmas:
  • "12 Days of Christmas" has a married father die shortly before Christmas due to driving drunk.
  • "Lennon's Christmas" has various doctors, drunk drivers, family members and victims deal with either a grave injury or a death whilst in the hospital as a young child sings "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)".
• Uncertain Doom: A few ads has the subject critically injured, but their fates are left ambiguous:
  • One ad has a sleep-deprived man accidentally drive himself and his family into a lake. He's able to save himself, but the rest of the family's fates are not known.
  • The "Tracy" ad has the woman in question seriously injured due to her friend's inexperienced driving, but we don't know if she pulled through.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: "Bush Telegraph" shows a man who is drinking with friends and gets a call from another friend, warning that a booze bus is in the area. In order to avoid the police, the man drives home through back streets - and drives through a stop sign, killing himself and his son when a tanker smashes into their car. All because of the person who tried to warn him (the ad was specifically targeted at people who do this, since their only concern about drink driving is whether they'll get caught.)

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