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According to Traffic Safety Commission statistics, 7 out of 10 Puerto Rican citizens admit to texting while driving. This practice, the 2nd biggest cause of local driving accidents, has resulted in over 50,000 accidents in the island alone n 2014. McCann San Juan created a campaign starring Pepito a beloved fictional character from a comic strip published in the Primera Hora newspaper for the last 10 years, to push the national government to pass stricter legislation punishing citizens who text and drive.

The agency collaborated with Pepito’s creators and decided that the beloved Pepito character would be hit by a driver, who was text & driving, while Pepito was on his way to send a letter to the House of Representatives demanding stricter laws to fight this infraction.

As a result of the accident, the Pepito character was left in a coma for several weeks. The character would recover only after the legislators approved a stricter law, and the comic strip used its daily reach to readers to pressure the government to act.

The campaign prompted readers to demand new laws for road safety.Readers were ased to write, call and email Congress to change the existing law. Otherwise, Pepito would not wake from his coma.If the readers or the Congress ignored the issue, Pepito would die in the comic strip—ending the character for good.

The campaign was published daily in the newspaper Primera Hora and on Pepito’s Facebook Fanpage. News coverage of Pepito’s accident, created by real journalists from Primera Hora, were published both in the printed and digital version of the paper.

The media and popular pressure escalated to the point of the House of Representatives approving a 5 fold increase of the text & drive fine, from US$ 50 to US$ 250.