One of the leading causes of deaths in America is drunk driving; according to the NHTSA, "in 2012, more than 10,000 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes.  --  one every 51 minutes." To combat these statistics, many "drink responsibly" ads have been created, especially by alcohol companies themselves. For instance, Heineken's ad for drinking responsibly displays a simple message: "Don't drink and drive." The ad illustrates the perspective of a drunk driver, effectively conveying the message that while intoxicated, your perceptions are impaired. Driving under the influence is an accident waiting to happen. Heineken is likely speaking to a mature audience -- age 21 and up. To convey the message, the ad uses the elements of: color, lighting, parallelism, perspective and symbolism.

The image is shot in an empty intersection on a dreary night. The sky is pitch-black and the streets are colored by the yellow-toned tungsten streetlamps. The grungy monotone color evokes a cold unpleasant feeling. The buildings are covered by shadows, implying a sense of evil and surprise around the corner. The decision to color the picture in a night setting is appropriate because more drunk-driving accidents occur more at night than during the day. The NHTSA says that in 2011, "fatal crashes in 2011 were 4.5 times higher at night than during the day." Also the audience may notice that the streets are empty which is implying a late time frame; a time when everyone is asleep. If the author decided to portray the picture in a sunny, colorful setting the message would not have been as effective; the gloominess of the monotone color and bleak lighting gives the ad displeasing character.

The roads, curbs, signs, and buildings are all symmetrically parallel in Heineken's ad. Parallelism plays an important role in an image; it usually expresses an image as being uniform and flowing. Everything seems to be even and parallel except for the white stop line located in the middle of the intersection; it is not located in its correct position next to the stop sign. The misplaced stop line symbolizes a disturbance of the flow -- an unexpectedness. Driving is symbolic to parallelism; you picture a person driving a car down a road in a flowing, routine manner. Accidents happen if there is a disturbance. The break in flow is symbolic to the cause of car accidents -- alcohol. Alcohol is the reason why the stop line is misplaced; Heineken includes the text "When you drink your reaction time slows down." Parallelism effectively conveys Heineken's message because it symbolizes a disruption of flow as an inevitable car wreck.

Perspective is the element this Heineken ad depends on to get its message across. We see the image through the drunk driver's perspective; we are able visualize and understand the effects of intoxication due to the misplacement of the white stop line and the white text included. Interpreting the stop line a little more, we notice it is in the middle of the intersection, a few yards up from the stop sign. It is in the perfect position for an incoming car on the cross street to collide with the drunk driver for a T-Bone collision. The importance of perspective is that if it were viewed through the eyes of a normal sober person, there would not be any risk of an accident. There is no message if the image is not portrayed through the eyes of the drunk driver. The image would merely be an empty dark street.

"Don't drink and drive" seems to be the underlying message by alcohol companies in their ads nowadays. One can only ponder the irony -- they are the cause of death, yet they are creating ads to stop it. But death isn't always the outcome of impaired driving; it is just the worst possibility. Elements of: color, lighting, parallelism, perspective, and symbolism conveys Heineken's message -- if you are driving under the influence, you are likely to end in a car accident.
