Titled “Text Crash,” the :30 PSA spot shows a young woman texting while driving, which causes her to run a red light and crash into another vehicle. In the eerie-aftermath, against the wail of the approaching sirens, we hear the “ping” of an incoming text: a friend wondering where she is. The message “Please don’t text and drive. We don’t need the business that bad,” then fades up, followed by the logo placement, for which each local area auto body shop sponsoring the PSA in their local community can advertise itself.
Writer/director Chuck Jessen, a tenant at 32TEN Studios, shot the actual car crash in the back lot of the studio, after determining that trying to stage a crash at an actual city intersection would be too involved and expensive. Having had shot the street-driving scenes previously, Jessen used a cable mechanism to crash the two vehicles together in the 32TEN backlot so no actors or crew would be put at risk and no traffic disruption would occur in the community.
“We were able to pull off the crash effect successfully, with the help of 32TEN’s large green screen, as well as some skillful digital compositing and editing,” said Jessen. “Without the involvement of 32TEN Studios, this crash-concept would have been too cost-prohibitive.”
“Text Crash” is just the latest of 17 collision repair commercials produced by Jessen and licensed to auto body shops across the U.S. and Canada through his marketing company, PreFab Ads.
