‘Awkward’ texting ad goes viral

New Zealand’s transport authority has turned to ‘awkward humour’ in a bid to get across the anti-text and drive message to its nation’s motorists.

The NZ Transport Agency’s ‘Hello’ ad has gone viral because of its unorthodox style, moving away from the much-used shock factor and instead opting to make viewers smile and feel uncomfortable.

The film shows a number of different motorists receiving a text while they are driving with passengers in their vehicle.

In each scene, just before the driver reaches instinctively to check the message, the passenger covertly slides their hand, palm-up over the phone which results in an awkward, slightly creepy but amusing hand-hold between the pair.

Accompanied by the Lionel Richie song of the same name, the advert carries the tagline: “Put your passengers first. Drive Phone Free.”

Launched on YouTube on 27 March, the ad had already achieved more than 1.15m views.