A new public service announcement from Honda perfectly captures the way text messaging has become integral to our most intimate relationships.
The ad shows a close-up of a cell phone text messaging conversation between two lovers who exchange the sort of flirty banter that will resonate with anyone who has ever waited anxiously for someone they love to come home and fall into their arms.
In this case, one of the parties is returning home after receiving a gift from his or her squeeze.
YouTube/Honda
Alas, the mood is destroyed when of the texters gets into a car accident.
YouTube/Honda
The ad, made by the agency RPA, concludes with a simple message from Honda: Don't text and drive.
According to the Virginia Teach Transportation Institute, texting while driving makes people nearly three times more likely to get in a car crash than those who don't. Despite this danger, recent research suggests that four out of five college students have done so anyway.
Honda is just one of several parties who have tried to convince young people that their sense of invincibility is no match for the very real risks of distracted driving.
Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sponsored an ad that followed a group of teenagers whose good time ended abruptly with a jarring car crash.
And in March, a Bay Area graphic designer bought billboards in San Francisco that sought to shame people caught on camera texting behind the wheel.