Since its unofficial launch in February, the radio industry has embraced RADD – Recording Artists, Actors and Athletes Against Drink Driving – to the point where there are now over 100 stations who, between them, are providing almost 2,500 x 30 second messages a week to the cause.
Each message is delivered by one of scores of celebrities including Eric Bana, Layne Beachley, Ozzy Osbourne and Flea from Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
According to Dave Carter, Project manager for RADD “It’s the Star Power of these celebrities coupled with a decent volume of air time on radio that provides RADD with the impetus it needs to help save young lives”.
For free audio download of Mark Skaife, Peter Brock, KISS and Fur Patrol and all the other RADD messages go to the Free Audio section
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The official launch was held this week at the Malthouse in Melbourne. The picture shows (from L to R) RADD’s Dave Carter with special guests Katie Underwood and Bathurst race legend, Peter Brock, who said, “I’ve had a passion about educating people against drinking and driving for my adult life. You might have noticed that over the years my racing car has the number O5. Well, that’s because of the legal limit and that goes back a long, long way”.
Motor sport is particularly well represented in the line-up of RADD celebrities with Formula 1 driver Mark Webber and V8 Supercar ace, Mark Skaife, lending their voices to the cause.
A key feature of RADD is the vast numbers of celebrities from both the entertainment and the sporting fields that it attracts. DMG’s Mike Perso agrees that the talent count is an important factor, “For this type of campaign to work it must have continual exposure over an extended period. With Radiowise adding fresh, high profile talent each week, we have been able to commit our network to at least 22 x 30 secs RADD messages per week for the foreseeable future knowing that the campaign will remain fresh over the long term”.
RADD in the US has been operating for 18 years and more than 500 personalities have supported its campaigns, including Paul McCartney. In Australia, the campaign is managed by Radiowise and funded by the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation (AER) Foundation.
RG Capital’s Jason Matthews says, “Drink driving is an issue in regional Australia for us all. So for us RADD represents a win-win situation for all concerned because it’s great programming and at the same time allows us to use our network’s reach across Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania to help lower the road toll”.
For the latest RADD celebrity messages from Paul Stanley (KISS), Julia from Fur Patrol, Mark Skaife and Peter Brock go to FREE AUDIO If you’d like to find out more about how your station can participate in RADD call Sasha Kahan at Radiowise on (02) 9438 4000.