Do we need TV to tell us how to behave? Well, it worked with “Only YOU can prevent forest fires,” “Every litter bit hurts,” and dozens of other public-service TV ad campaigns. But how far should an ad go to make a point, even with the best intentions? Perhaps these folks went a bit too far.
SAFETY FIRST! In 2007 the Canadian Workplace Safety and Insurance Board produced a series of public-service announcements to warn of workplace hazards. Here’s a sample of what TV viewers saw.
• A young female chef says to the camera, “I’m on the fast track to becoming head chef, and I’m supposed to be getting married next week. But I won’t, because I’m about to have a terrible accident.” Suddenly, she slips, falls, spills a huge cauldron of hot oil all over herself, and screams in gurgling agony as her face literally melts.
• Warehouse manager: “Get that skid.” Forklift driver: “Okay.” Bad move. The forklift drives up to a shelving unit and the shelves collapse, burying the driver in a crushing mountain of steel pipes. With pipes protruding from his bleeding torso, the driver delivers a monologue about the importance of managerial oversight.
DON’T SMOKE! This Australian announcement starts with a close-up of a cancer-ridden mouth. The camera pulls back to reveal a woman who says, “Smoking causes mouth cancer. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t need radiotherapy and chemotherapy.” She then refers to the quit-smoking number that’s printed on every pack of cigarettes before the camera zooms back in to linger on her chipped, yellow, rotten teeth, her mouth sores, and her oozing, bloody gums.
TEXTING AND DRIVING DON’T MIX! This PSA from England begins with three teenage girls in a car, talking and laughing. The driver starts texting…she crosses the center line and smashes into another car, and then another car smashes into them, shattering windows and sending girls flying. The camera pans over the blood-covered bodies; the driver screams in terror. As onlookers and rescue workers try to help, a little girl in one of the other wrecked cars is crying, “Mummy, Daddy, wake up! Mummy, Daddy, wake up!” (Mummy and Daddy don’t wake up.)
Canadian Gilbert Nelles says a beam from a UFO made him into a reincarnation of Elvis Presley.