Meet the Guy You're About to Put in the Hospital

Shock tactics depicting grim injuries are nothing new in anti-alcohol PSAs, but here's an approach we haven't seen before. To highlight the problem of alcohol-fueled violence, Australia's New South Wales Government has created a series of commercials in which drinkers who appear to be having a normal good time are greeted by a disturbing apparition: the guy they're going to drunkenly punch and potentially give life-threatening injuries to a few hours later.

Aimed at 18-to-35-year-olds, the spots encourage young drinkers to consider not only their own drinking habits, but those of their social circle; in the video above, for instance, the guy-from-the-future addresses the friends of the drinker. In another spot, he warns a man in a one-on-one conversation that he'll end up serving time in jail. The tagline is "Stop Before It Gets Ugly."

The films are by JWT Sydney and directed by Michael Spiccia through Goodoil films (Spiccia has since moved on to Scoundrel). They are part of a wider campaign that includes out-of-home activity such as specially-built mirrored panels depicting a jail cell.