The documentaries tell the stories of Forrest Cepeda and Caleb Sorohan, teenage boys who were killed in distracted driving accidents more than seven years ago. In the film, we hear interviews with their mothers aunts and siblings as they discuss the devastating long-term effects of such a traumatic event.

The campaign’s TV and social spots, drove to Forrest’s documentary, which lived in the AT&T ItCanWait.com landing page, as well as on AT&T’s YouTube channel. After viewers watched it, they were prompted to take the pledge to never drive distracted, which they could do right in the same website.

The production process took about five months. The campaign was approved in Mid-November and the shoot happened in the first week of December. Post-production lasted from Late December until April. The film went live on 4/25/18.

As a result of the campaign, 60% of viewers said it would change their behavior, garnering over 73 million media impressions and over 13 million views in less than a week. We effectively doubled the average engagement rate of all past AT&T brand advertising, helping It Can Wait surpass 20 million pledges to end distracted driving.

The piece is an Errol Morris–directed documentary that tells the story of Forrest Cepeda, a 16-year-old boy who was killed in a distracted driving accident.

More than 95% of people recognize the danger in using their smartphones while driving, yet over 83% of drivers still do it. So by telling these families’ personal stories we set out to show people of all driving ages the devastating effect that using your phone behind the wheel has in multiple people’s lives, not just the ones involved in the accident.

For the last eight years, AT&T’s It Can Wait campaign has been dedicated to fighting distracted driving. So far, AT&T convinced 24.5 million consumers to take the pledge not to drive distracted.

The problem is that while more than 95% of people recognize the danger in using their smartphones while driving, over 83% of drivers still do it. So beyond awareness, we needed to change behavior. So we set out to show the true depth of loss and long-term effects of something so trivial and avoidable such as a text or a social media notification.

We are no longer talking exclusively to teens. Distracted driving is a huge problem, causing as many as 4,000 deaths a year in the U.S. Many of us engage in this behavior on a daily basis without a second thought about how truly irresponsible it is.