Last fall, Travelers insurance and TBWA/Chiat/Day took viewers into an alternative universe to warn against the dangers of distracted driving.  The gut-wrenching “Unfinished Stories” campaign debuted with an animated film about a 19-year-old track star whose life was cut short as a result of a distracted driving accident. Instead of focusing on his death, however, it imagined where his life could have gone had it not been for that fatal moment.

Today, the brand has dropped two more bittersweet films. One tells the tale of another 19-year-old, Shreya Dixit, killed when the driver of the car she was riding in veered off the road during a moment of distraction. Her alternative tale sees her going on to study business at grad school but also taking the stage to pursue her passion for singing. A third film imagines the happy ending that wasn’t for 61-year-old Howard Stein. His survival story shows him channeling his love for carpentry and woodworking into building a tree house for his granddaughter--who was still in his daughter's womb at the time of his death. 

Travelers and TBWA N.Y. worked with the film subjects’ families to create the films as part of the Travelers Institute Every Second Matters distracted-driving initiative. According to the CDC, the distracted driving epidemic kills at least nine people a day and injures 1,000 in the U.S. alone.

Dixit’s story, “The Stage,” was produced out of Psyop and directed by Jack Anderson, while Guilherme Marcondes helmed “Tree House,” via Lobo Studio.