I've been on a TAC binge lately, but the last thing I want to do is ruin anyone's December by delving into any of their Christmas campaigning. I can't say it represents their best work - TAC had a tendency toward heavy-handed displays of emotion at the best of times, and if anything was guaranteed to tease out their worst excesses, it was the festive season. Thus, I will spare you the vomitous ice slurry that is "The 12 Days of Christmas" and instead look to another purveyor of Australian road sense, the Road Safety Commission of Western Australia, for this year's dosage of seasonal safety awareness. The twist being that this particular campaign, "Ghost" (circa 2003), wasn't technically a Christmas outing. It isn't set at Christmastime, nor do I have any evidence of it doing its rounds during December. It is, however, conspicuously modelled on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, so I'd say that it's eligible for a spot in our Yuletide line-up. Variations on A Christmas Carol, that instantly-recognizable tale of short-sighted decisions and their potentially grave consequences, are something I'm frankly surprised we don't see more often in these kinds of safety campaigns, but then they possibly require a more complex narrative set-up than most 60-second ads have time for. Those who prefer their safety campaigns to be grounded in thoroughgoing realism (TAC included) would presumably also sooner stay away from anything so fanciful. RSC, though, were able to work dark magic with the concept - "Ghost" is eerie, offbeat and a wickedly good ride. It deserves a more prominent spot in the televised trauma hall of fame.
"Ghost" opens with our Scrooge stand-in, Pete, getting an unwelcome wake-up call from a sinister looming figure who identifies, somewhat sardonically, as "The Ghost of Crashes Future". This grinning spectre is intent on dragging him out of bed and taking him for a midnight drive, ostensibly to feed his need for speed, but actually to issue a stark warning about the crash Pete's habitual speeding will cause in the near future - a crash that will claim the life of his passenger and best friend Jez. Cue the cemetery shots and window-side peeping into the wrecked lives of grieving relatives.
A Christmas Carol isn't the only major influence I detect in "Ghost". The premise of an undead entity with an array of gruesome lacerations dropping in on a naive protagonist to peddle a chilling vision of the carnage to come also bears a striking resemblance to John Landis's 1981 comic horror An American Werewolf in London. Honestly, it's the American Werewolf influence that gives "Ghost" that additional zing as a safety spot - it's not afraid to get ghoulishly, almost gleefully macabre. The visual appearance of the Ghost of Crashes Future seems designed to compensate for the fact that we don't actually see the crash itself, giving us our quota for abhorrent imagery. His own backstory is never expounded on, although judging by his carved-up features, it seems an obvious conclusion that he himself exited the mortal realm via a harrowing crash. The Ghost is, I'd argue, a really good, really underrated PIF antagonist (I will stop short of calling him a villain, because much like the ghosts from A Christmas Carol and the undead Jack from American Werewolf, he is technically on the side of good). He's not quite as psychologically scarring as the Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water (because very few things are), but he is right up there with the inexplicably malevolent narrator of the Drinking and Driving Wrecks Lives installment "Mark". He's as effective as he is because there is something fiendishly, markedly inhuman about him, even before he shows his face and reveals his purpose. The opening frame, which depicts him as an imposing silhouette hovering over Pete's bed, is already an uncanny imagine enough in itself, but his baleful nature becomes exceptionally apparent in that discordant combination of chipper demeanour, malignant grin and heavily mangled face. The objective of his visit might be to impress on Pete the error of his speeding ways, but I've a hunch that this Ghost is in the haunting business because he gets off on the horror and misery. When he takes Pete to the house of Jez's mother to steal a quick glance into her grief-induced insomnia, capping it off with the observation "Nice work, Pete, real nice", the sarcasm and disdain in his voice are unmistakable, but so is the perverse relish he's evidently reaping from his assignment.
All of which plays into the campaign's key strength, which is that it is legitimately spooky. The Ghost of Crashes Future is an undiluted creep, but he's also the kind of spectre who only calls on you because you unwittingly invited him. He is but a grotesque manifestation of your degenerate willingness to endanger yourself and everyone around you with your reckless habits. Being whisked down a dark, deserted highway with only his company, and other glaring reminders of your misdeeds, is a compelling shorthand for being made to reckon with the hair-raising horrors embedded in your own nature. Horrors that arise not out of malice but from wilful ignorance - Pete's indifference to the ramifications of his everyday choices might be less openly aloof than that of his Dickensian counterpart, but the impact proves every bit as catastrophic to the lives he touches.
"Ghost" was originally designed to be shown in two 45-second halves, spaced out across a single ad break, a popular strategy at the time for road safety campaigns broadcast on Australian television (a full 104-second version combining both installments and some additional material[1] was also screened in cinemas). After the set-up, in which Pete learns of the terrible consequences his actions will bring, viewers could stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion, in which Pete is called to confront what went wrong and why his speeding was the critical factor. As noted, the crash itself is not shown, which is in keeping with the source material (the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come did not show Scrooge such tragic events as Tiny Tim's death or his own lonely passing as they occurred, just what followed in the aftermath). Instead, the Ghost takes him to the scene of the crash and lays out exactly what will happen. Pete will be driving 10-15k over the speed limit, as usual, when a ute (utility vehicle) will suddenly pull out in front of him and he'll be unable to stop in time. It becomes apparent that Pete's critical malfunction is his inability to accept responsibility for his actions - though he was purportedly receptive to understanding the cause of the accident ("Tell me"), upon learning that another vehicle was involved he immediately seizes the opportunity to lay the blame on someone else ("So it's the ute's fault?"). The Ghost then tells him to wake up, and he does - in bed, and in a cold sweat. Meanwhile, his girlfriend kipping next to him doesn't even stir.
Technically it's an optimistic ending. Pete literally awakening from the nightmare can be interpreted as symbolism for his waking up to the reality that he had the power of life and death in his hands all along; with any luck, his visitation from the Ghost of Crashes Future has left him with the foresight to drive within the limit and prevent the lethal crash from ever happening. Still, we don't get the kind of reassurance as we did in Dickens' tale about the long-term survival of Tiny Tim in Scrooge's new improved timeline, leaving the ad on a note of unsettling ambiguity that, ingeniously, puts the final outcome in our hands. Whether Pete has taken on board the message and will abide by the closing instruction to "Slow down, save lives" hinges on whether we the viewer have done the same. The onus to save Jez is now on us. Did the Ghost of Crashes Future make a ghastly enough impression?
[1] The full cinema cut is the only version I'm presently able to find, so alas, I'm in no position to comment on what was missing in the television presentation.
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