Mass Minority Drives Awareness of Impairment with 'Cannabits' Campaign

Now that cannabis is legal nationwide in Canada, the #KnowWhatImpairedMeans campaign, led by Parachute, Canada’s national charity dedicated to injury prevention, focuses on educating people about impairment and persuading them to avoid risking being a passenger with a driver under the influence of cannabis, or from risking driving themselves if impaired. Parachute has engaged Mass Minority as its agency of record for the campaign, supported by Health Canada.

Above: A striking OOH installation from the campaign

“Data provided by Parachute told us that 50 percent of Canadian cannabis users think it's OK to drive after cannabis use, so we urgently need to make this topic a peer-to-peer discussion to reverse this belief,” says Brett Channer, CEO of technology communications agency, Mass Minority.

Everything about the campaign is informed by data: What do people believe, how do they relate to the topic, what medium are they most likely to see it in, and what works best in that medium. To that end, the spots were shot in vertical format (9:16) as well as usual YouTube/video 16:9 for a mobile-first viewing strategy that lives where the audience lives, along with three six-second shorts, nicknamed “Cannabits”, to build on awareness.

The spots use analogy to highlight what’s at risk when you put your life in the hands of a driver who is high. "Would you want to jump from a plane with a parachute packed by someone who is high, or be at the top of a rock climb with a spotter who is high?” says Channer. “Of course not! So why get in a car with someone who is high becomes the next logical step.”

The “cannabits” launched as Instagram stories, use humour to show what can happen if you undertake a precise physical task when high – such as waxing an eyebrow or shaving a hairline fade. If you wouldn’t risk doing those things high, why would you trust yourself to operate a two-tonne vehicle that could kill someone if you had a moment of inattention?

The campaign also built a lit-sign, Instagram-magnet installation that has been displayed at the CNE, Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto City Hall, and can be moved in future to where our key audience of 15-to-24-year-olds may gather.

The portable electronic sign consists of a series of words lit up commonly used to describe being high: stoned, baked, high. Then you see the reveal in red letters among the stacked words: “Impaired". The message under the sign reads, ‘Call it what you want. Don’t drive impaired.”

"To ensure we are successful, we're are also optimising the content in market in real-time – weekly, if not daily – to maximise the performance based on what the data is telling us in the digital and social space,” says Channer.