Messages that begin that way have a hard way to go.

So when we see a smart public service message, we are quick to take note.

Last March in Brazil, an agency came up with a clever way to warn college student of the evils of drugs and alcohol. They created what looked like a giant pit in the middle of a sidewalk, as if the pavement had collapsed and fallen into the earth.

The message, posted on a barricade: "That’s how drugs are: The end of the line. Stay away from drugs and alcohol.”

A campaign now running in Auckland, New Zealand, aims to educate pedestrians of the dangers of crossing busy roadways. It uses trompe l'oeil paintings on sidewalks of various dangers of the wild: sharks, molten lava, a very hungry-looking crocodile, a pit of snakes and a broken footbridge across a chasm.

Like the sidewalk art in Brazil, the paintings look very real, as if the sidewalk had fallen in to reveal this great danger underneath.

Beside each is this message, painted in white to stand out from the pavement: “Don’t step into danger.” Then in smaller lettering are statistics about how many pedestrians have been injured or killed in the city.

The campaign was created by Ogilvy New Zealand for the Auckland City Council.

“Our main objective was to remind people of smart, safe and responsible pedestrian behavior in the busy central city,” says Tiveshni Naidoo, account executive at Ogilvy New Zealand.

She says the obvious place to put such ads was right on the streets where pedestrians would see them.

“It was apparent that pedestrians had a false sense of security around crossing the road,” Naidoo says. “We needed to interrupt this state of mind, and a subtle or predictable channel would not achieve this.”

The paintings, five in all, were done by Marc Spijkerbosch, one of New Zealand’s best-known trompe l'oeil muralists. Each was painted near a busy intersection in Auckland’s central business district.

The campaign, which began in December and is still running, was an immediate attention-grabber for pedestrians. Says Naidoo: “The process created interest from the initial sketch as people passing by would stop to look at what was unfolding.”

The campaign also grabbed attention fro the local media as well as a national morning news show in New Zealand.