Getting young Singaporeans HIGH in a campaign about drug abuse.
In early 2020, we partnered with the National Council Against Drug Abuse in a new campaign to raise awareness about drug abuse.
Our campaign revolved around an interactive film, which immersed viewers in a story and gave them the freedom to choose if they wanted to try drugs.
By doing so, we managed to get young people in Singapore talking about one of our least talked-about topics: drugs.
Background
Singapore has some of the world’s harshest penalties for drug trafficking and abuse. Despite this, attitudes towards drugs have softened considerably among young people, due to the rise of social media and how drugs are portrayed in the media.
Anti-drug messaging in Singapore is also notoriously authoritative, making it difficult for anti-drug campaigns to reach or convince their desired audience.
So for this campaign, we chose a different approach. Instead of telling young people what to do, we decided to just tell them the truth about drugs.
“Every high ends in a low.”
Campaign film
We chose an interactive film to front the campaign as we felt it would capture our anti-drug messaging best, and still maintain the intergrity of our story.
In the film, viewers step into the shoes of Nick, a young man living the Singaporean corporate dream. On a dating app, he matches with a girl named Sienna, who invites him to meet her friends and “chill”.
30s trailer
Play the film at high.sg (available until November 2021)
Out-of-home and social ads
To promote the film, we created an Instagram filter that interacted with on-ground ads. Thanks to an Anaglyph 3D technique, people could choose to see the highs and lows of drugs by toggling between red and blue filters.
With Singapore going through a “circuit-breaker” period that restricted outdoor movement, we turned to social media influencers and quizzes to reach our target audience. Using customised filters and stickers, we managed to bring to life some of the more hallucinatory drug effects, and indirectly promote our film.
Shaping the future of anti-drug education in schools
The campaign paved the way for on-ground engagement in local schools. Besides the introduction of a card game to help facilitate discussions among students, the interactive film has also been adopted as an educational material in all schools in Singapore.
A special behind-the-scenes film also shares snippets of character backstories through interviews with the cast. It is circulated in schools to encourage students to learn more about drug abuse by playing the interactive film, and making their own decisions.
Behind-the-scenes film
Awards
Asian Academy Creative Awards 2020
Grand Final Winner, Best Immersive (360, VR)
National Winner, Best Immersive (360, VR)
Publicity
Campaign Brief Asia
Dentsu Aegis Network and the National Council Against Drug Abuse Singapore aim HIGH in new 2020 campaign
CNA
Singapore’s first interactive film is a horror story about drug use
Coconuts Singapore
Get ‘HIGH’ on this sexy, Black Mirror-style interactive film by Singaporean director Royston Tan
Marketing Interactive
SG council against drug abuse lets youths make choices on drug issues
Mothership
Interactive film by S’pore filmmaker Royston Tan lets you ‘experience’ debilitating effects of drug abuse
SG Magazine
This new interactive film by Royston Tan depicts the highs and lows of drug abuse
The Drum
National Council Against Drug Abuse uses interactive film to educate Singaporeans on rising drug abuse
The New Paper
No moral HIGH ground taken in first interactive short film
The Straits Times
New interactive film by Royston Tan aims to spark conversations on meth abuse among youth
Interactive short film aims to push anti-drug message
TODAY
New Royston Tan film shows how simple decisions can spiral into drug abuse
8 Days
Royston Tan on his interactive film HIGH, and the new movie he can’t complete because of the Covid-19 pandemic
Credits
Executive Creative Director
Andy Greenaway
Creative Director
Jatinder Sandhu
Art Director
Joanna Lim
Copywriters
Stefanie Conceicao and Vanessa Han
Project Management
Dawn Choong and Dee Dee Law
Senior Producer
Maggie Chan
Producers
Adilin Ismail and Pearlyn Ho
Account Management
Eric Chua, Ayeshah Mirzha, Joleen Sim and Siddarth Prabhakar
Strategy
Shivendra Dikshit
Production House (HIGH)
Chuan Pictures
Film Director
Royston Tan
Screenwriter
He Shuming
Verb
Production House
(Behind-the-Scenes Film)
Very Crafty
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