Would You Drive With Your Eyes Closed?

What if instead of glancing at their phones, drivers simply covered their eyes while behind the wheel?

It's an unsettling visual at the center of a new distracted driving campaign from Richmond-based Two Tango Collaborative and the Virginia DMV Highway Safety Office, designed to make drivers rethink the everyday choice to look at their phones on the road.

The message comes at a critical time. In 2025, distracted driving contributed to 116 deaths and more than 12,000 injuries in Virginia, with fatalities increasing nearly 30% from the previous year.

The campaign brings that danger to life through a simple metaphor: taking your eyes off the road to check your phone is no different than driving with your eyes closed. Grounded in research showing that drivers are quick to criticize distracted driving in others but often justify their own behavior, the creative challenges Virginians to recognize themselves in the problem.

The campaign launched today across digital, streaming and out-of-home, with broadcast beginning November 9.

Additionally, to reach more Virginians during football season, the campaign also partnered with NFL and collegiate football players with ties to the Commonwealth, including TreVeyon Henderson (New England Patriots), Tremaine Edmunds (New York Giants), Kemari Copeland (Virginia Tech) and George Pettaway (James Madison University). In social content, the athletes highlight that at 55 mph, a five-second glance takes you the length of an entire football field without watching the road.

These spots will release on a rolling basis, with the first being TreVeyon Henderson on 11/4.