Taken from an unflinching anti-drink driving road safety campaign, this 1982 ad was made for the Ministry of Transport by Kiwi ad company Silverscreen. The concept was inspired by controversially imagined scenes in Oscar-winning 1979 Vietnam movie The Deer Hunter, in which US soldiers are forced to play Russian roulette by their Vietcong captors. The idea of equating the risks of drunk driving with Russian roulette has been repeated many times since, including campaigns by advertising agencies in Thailand and Italy.

Great adverts are strange things: mini works of magic, with the power to make viewers smile, cry, and even buy. Kiwi directors have shown such a knack for making them, they've been invited to do so across the globe. But this collection is about local favourites; dogs on skateboards, choc bar robberies, ghost chips. NZ On Screen's Irene Gardiner backgrounds the top 10 here.

Long before Ghost Chips, even before "don't use your back like a crane", life in Godzone was fraught with hazards. This collection shows public safety awareness films spanning from the 50s to the 70s. If there's kitsch enjoyment to be had in the looking back (chimps on bikes?!) the lessons remain timeless. Remember: It's better to be safe than sorry.

Attitude is a weekly series looking at the issues and interests of people living with a disability. This episode features Kiwi teenager George Cairney, who suffered a serious head injury after getting into a car with a drunk driver. The 19-year-old now has a child-like personality, and has to re-learn everything. Also featured is a story on two former NYC police officers who were among the first responders to the Twin Towers terror attack. The pair talk about the health issues and post-traumatic stress disorder they and their colleagues suffer.

In this acclaimed comedy series the life of a lawyer goes to the dogs, when his father’s death throws him into Auckland’s low-rent greyhound racing scene. In the second to last episode, Will’s mongrel crew have a new dog, trainer Marty does community service and Will takes on a retail job. Thedownlowconcept production screened late Friday nights on TV3. Stuff television critic Chris Philpott thought it the best scripted comedy New Zealand had produced to date. Hounds won Best Comedy at the 2012 NZ TV Awards.

In April 1984 Poi-E was atop the NZ music charts, with ‘Jo the breakdancer’ starring in the song's music video. So it's apt that this edition of the TVNZ youth show looks at “the craze currently sweeping New Zealand — breakdancing”. In her first presenting gig, future MTV host Phillipa Dann heads to Mangere to bop and head-spin. Elsewhere in this season opener, David Hindley reports on a School Certificate controversy, and why young drivers are dying on country roads. Co-presenting back in Viewfinder’s Dunedin studio is Uelese Petaia (star of movie Sons for the Return Home).

This 2011 anti-drink driving ad campaign became a Kiwi pop cultural phenomenon, spawning countless parodies, memes, t-shirts and over a million YouTube views; phrases from the ad entered the vernacular (“you know I can’t grab your ghost chips”). Eschewing the usual shock and horror tactics, the Clemenger BBDO campaign for the NZ Transport Agency was targeted at young male Māori drivers, and used humour to get the message across that it was choice to stop a mate from driving drunk. Directed by Steve Ayson, it won a prestigious D&AD Yellow Pencil award in 2012.

The final episode of this long-running TVNZ show for Māori youth comes from a BBQ party atop Auckland's TVNZ HQ. When I AM TV began in 2008 it was all about Bebo. Five years later it’s about Bieber (the singer #tautokos the show), Skux and Twitter, and the hashtag #KeepingItReo. Hosts Kimo Houltham and Chey Milne review the year’s highlights: from Koroneihana to a boil up with Katchafire; from dance crews to hunting for Jeff da Māori, with Liam Messam and The Waikato Chiefs; from a Samoan holiday (with co-presenter Taupunakohe Tocker), to defining mana in 2012.

On the evening after the Christchurch earthquake of 22 February 2011, Alexandra’s three person rural drink-drive squad was sent to the city to assist rescue efforts. They were accompanied by field director Pip Wallis, who had been filming them for TV2 series Highway Cops. Hers was the only media camera allowed behind the cordon in the devastated central city Red Zone during those first few days. This documentary intersperses news coverage with her footage as the Central Otago police confront unimagined destruction, ongoing aftershocks and the human face of the tragedy. 

Chris Stapp and Matt Heath's adept manipulation of miniatures combined with the band's nihilistic performances make for one of NZ's most hilarious (albeit puerile) music clips. Depictions of drug inhalation and drinking while driving, along with violent confrontations with the law, only add to the tongue-in-cheek Back of the Y establishment-baiting that a generation of bogans, students and boy racers has come to know and love.