As a first of its kind, the ground-breaking campaign partnered with Drive Dry and South African hip-hop artist, Nomuzi Mabena to combat drinking and driving behaviours.
Volkswagen in partnership with Drive Dry is urging South Africans to celebrate life responsibly in 2019 by changing #MonatiHaoFeli (the party doesn’t stop) to #MonatiWaFela (the party does stop). I know they mean well, but they misspelled “monate”, which directly translates to “a good time” in SeSotho.
This complete disregard for indigenous languages only serves as an assertion to open up the advertising industry to young Black professionals.
Nomuzi Mabena in one of her staged social media posts on Instagram. Picture supplied.
Granted, December in South Africa typically sees a culture of ‘the party doesn’t stop‘, #MonatiHaoFeli, until it does, #MonatiWaFela.
This month, as South Africans are making their new year’s resolutions, Volkswagen in partnership with Drive Dry, a Diageo South Africa initiative, seek to make a positive change when it comes to drinking and driving by urging people to pledge to #VWDriveDry in 2019 in order to make the party stop before their life does.
The #MonatiWaFela campaign which kicked off in December 2018, saw popular hip-hop artist Nomuzi Mabena who goes by the stage name Moozlie, posting images on her social media pages which were indicative of drinking and driving.
She was seen getting behind the wheel shortly after partying, making stops at a popular fast food outlet at 2 am with a red beer cup, sharing her secrets on avoiding metro police, and blatantly drinking what appears to be gin, all whilst behind the driver’s wheel.
Nomuzi Mabena takes a stand with Volkswagen SA and Drive Dry. Picture supplied.
Her holiday culminates in a heart-stopping live Instagram video, whilst Moozlie is talking about her dreams for 2019.
Within seconds there is a sudden screech and crash and the audience realises that she has been in a car accident.
For 12 hours after the accident is shared across social media, fans speculated and contemplated the reality of what they had just witnessed.
After an agonising day of her fans imagining the pain she and her family must be going through and reflecting on their own beliefs and behaviours, Volkswagen, Moozlie and Drive Dry released a video which revealed the truth about the accident.
The crew on set, filming the staged accident. Picture supplied.
The crash and all subsequent posts leading up to it were staged in order to drive a powerful message home.
With another December of devastating road fatalities, many caused by drinking and driving, Volkswagen and Drive Dry wanted to create an impactful campaign that will make South Africans wake up to the realities of the behaviours that are condoned on social media.
The campaign aims to inspire drivers to make a behavioural change and think twice before drinking and driving.
The campaign also hopes to encourage friends and family to speak out against their loved-ones when they identify signs of drinking and driving.
Those taking up the pledge and committing to Drive Dry in 2019 are sharing the hashtag #VWDriveDry on social media.
WATCH: Bold campaign encourages South Africans to drive dry
