old/ classic adverts

http://crookedtimber.org/2007/01/25/toward-a-catalog-of-irish-public-service-ads/
the ones I can remember are

So You’re Off To School On Your Bike, narrated by Mike Murphy. “No signals, nobody looked, all on the wrong side of the road—in fact, just about everything was wrong.” You tell ‘em Mike.

John, Did You Put The Cat Out?.
A classic short regarding fire hazards at home. Bookended by John being harangued by his wife (in bed) for not remembering to put the cat out. In between, nearly burns the house down due to improbable combination of (a) smoldering cigarettes left in precariously perched ashtray, (b) overloaded electrical socket, (c) stroke of genius by panic-ridden John of throwing half-finished whisky on incipient fire and making the curtains catch alight, (d) second stroke of genius of throwing water on the electrical fire next to the telly. Cat likely moved out permanently later, or was accidentally left in the freezer or something.

E.D.I.T.H.
A close second on fire safety. Every family should have an Evacuation Drill In The Home worked out. Dad plans everything and informs the family about the drill at a family meeting. Dad gets to blow the whistle initiating the Drill. Only Dad gets to blow the whistle. Naturally, the house actually burns down shortly afterward. Do not jump from upstairs bedroom windows. Do not breathe in smoke. Do not blow the whistle unless you are Dad. I remember us pestering my father to work out an E.D.I.T.H. for us. He was skeptical.

Big John, or, Oh, Me Achin’ Back.
Work safety. All about Big John, who spent the day lifting stuff at work in a non-orthopedically wise manner. Set to C&W style music. “But he never gave a thought to his back booooone ….. Oooh, me achin’ back!” Worth it for the shot of Big John in traction at the end.

Two Will Do.
Early days of anti drink-driving campaigns. Each drink (whisky as I remember) is likened to loading a shell into a shotgun.

Road Safety.
Wear light-colored clothing and reflective armbands at night or die violently on the road. Also, put some lights on your bike. Contained disturbing (for a c. 7 year old) shot of person being hit head on by a car. Also contained disturbing (for anyone) but true sentence about Ireland: “In the Winter it can get dark as early as half past four.”

Fire-proof nighties.
No, really. Always buy a nightie with this code on the label. I forget the code. I bet someone else remembers, though. The actress may later have played the Witch on Fortycoats but I’m not sure.

Rabies Kills—Agonizingly.
Rabies Kills. Agonizingly. Look at this picture of a man foaming at the mouth, strapped to a hospital bed. Now look at this picture of a dog jumping off a boat onto a dock. Keep Rabies Out of Ireland you dirty foreigners.

Yellow Box Guy.
A vain effort to teach Irish motorists about keeping junctions clear of traffic by not driving in the goddamn yellow box, starring underemployed council worker Michelangelo,. Phrase “goddamn box” not actually used in original spot.

Public Health.
“Noel Carroll can run 800 meters in …” some time or other. A lot faster than you, anyway. Also, someone else can swim faster than you and so on. You are fat. See, you are not fit enough to run up those steps. Or catch that bus. There it goes. Start exercising. Contained memorable, perfectly-composed shot of a couple in a restaurant above a tennis court. Down below, two people are energetically playing tennis. In the restaurant, the one table we see is filled with the remains of a gigantic Irish breakfast, and also several drinks, and an ashtray full of cigarettes. The guy on the left has an enormous pot belly, pattern baldness, bulbous eyes and thick, fleshy lips. He looks like a well-fed, Irish Gollum. He glances out the window with amused contempt. “That’s not for me at all,” he says.


Cringe
The classic is the ‘Phone Wreckers Are Idiots’ ad. It starred Bob Geldof and was set to the tune of Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’. The lyrics went something like:

We don’t need your stupid messing,
We all want to use that phone,
Smash that phone on the doorstep,
Hey! Stupid! Leave the phone alone.

Reach throw wade row - she survided buy you didn't
Also a great drowning one but this might have been on a UK channel (we lived close enough to NI to pick up a signal). It showed various scenarios for a would-be rescue. Essentially the message was that if you just try and grab the person you’ll probably drown too but if you use a handy broken branch or your own coat to give them something to cling on to all will be well.


There was also a great one along the lines of the traffic box. Two cars coming fron opposite directions and each wants to turn right across the oncoming lane of traffic. So instead of having to wait for eachother, they do this kinky manouevre of sidling up close to eachother and turning about 45 degrees in such as they both can see oncoming traffic. And they both get a break in traffic at the same time, and manouevre off beautifully. It’s like ballet.

I think of it literally every time I’m turning right, and in twenty years I’ve never seen anyone do it. qft

I can’t look at a polyester nightie without thinking of it burning to a crisp and someone in it.

About every third time I stay at one friend’s house, we ask each other in Dublin accents if we put the cat out.

Oh and do you remember that sneaky one of a driver overtaking a parked van or bus when a child runs out in front of it?
Driver’s fault, of course – they would always ‘replay’ it and show the kid’s feet behind the van, and say the driver should have looked for this sure sign of a child about to launch himself into the road. But in the first shot there were never any feet. Infuriating!

Vaccination – German measles and pregnancy – Warning about the risks if you get German measles (Rubella) while pregnant. The “deaf” baby in the ad was still giving me the creeps when my wife was pregnant
How could I have forgotten this one? Shouting “BA! BA! BA!” at someone’s ear was a standard way of telling them they’d done something stupid.

There were also ones about the dangers of electricity, farmers and overhead power lines was one, and another where a child climbs up an a pylon to recover a Frisbee (again dating the ad) frying himself in the process.


Also, there was one telling mums not to yack on the phone or their children would drown in the paddle pool, or farmers to talk to their friends or the kids would climb into 44 gallon drums used to store water and drown (there was a particularly affecting shor at the end of that one with a childs legs sticking out of the water barrel.

I can remember a cartoon where the family put the dog out only for him to join a feral pack of sheep killing mutts, only to come home later and snuggle up by the fire.
The animated ad imploring us to keep our dogs locked in at night? A seemingly harmless family dog turns into a bloodthirsty killer after dark. Joins a roving gang of similarly un-tethered dogs for a sheep-killing rampage. I can still picture the field full of sheep lying with their throats torn out. I think it left quite an impression on anyone who was young at the time!


I think that there had to be one about safety boxes/U bars on tractors but I might be confusing that with the farmers and overhead wires referenced

We had the rabies obsession in Britain, too. The general message conveyed by the media was that if you set foot in France you’d be dead of rabies before you got through customs.





This may be my imagination, especially since no-one else has mentioned it yet, but I seem to recall an effort to stop children from playing near slurry pits (for those of you who live in cities, these are exactly what you think they are.) I do remember what seemed to me as a ten year old to be an epidemic of children being drowned in them, but my memories may be of the news coverage rather than any PSA.


Wasn’t there one about the proper place to park your bicycle? I.e. don’t leave it lying on the ground in front of a bakery or the man carrying the tray of loaves will go flying etc…


My favourite is the water safety ad, depicting a family, elderly grandparent in tow, enjoying a trip to a riverside park. All appears to be going well until we hear one of the children inquiring “Where’s Grandad?”.