Brandhouse is this festive season’s latest corporate entity to launch an anti drink-driving television and print campaign. And power to them. Drink-driving wreaks bloody carnage over our roads on far too large a scale the year round in South Africa, with the gore reaching fever pitch around Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

So one would expect a fairly strong message against drink-driving.

Explicitly suggested gang rape is probably a stronger message than many would have expected.

Of course the usual crowd have come out against the advertisement, alleging that is racist. I suppose you could justify some kind of race angle if you had a degree and half an hour of spare time, but I would hardly call this glaring.

The Drive Dry initiative was meant to raise awareness and change consumer behaviour by evoking strong emotional responses to the consequences of driving drunk, Brandhouse said this week.

Yep, gang rape is pretty likely to elicit a strong emotional response. “Papa wag vir jou” was an especially nice touch, I thought.