Thursday, May 27, 2010

What PSAs should look like

When I lived in Birmingham, there were a lot of things to get used to. One of them was British television--not just the BBC, but ITV and British ads and so on. One of the things that I saw there were road-safety PSAs that you would never, ever see on American TV--because for some reason, sex is fine, fake action-hero violence can be as gory as you want, but this: no. I still remember the physical reaction I had to seeing this, not knowing how it would end; the carseat lady shared it on facebook and I'm sharing it here.

(Click on the link, watch the video, and never let anyone behind you in the car ride unbuckled again.)


2 comments:

Jasmijn said...

Yes: it's very clear indeed. I emailed it out to a number of contacts.

LC said...

I am NOT watching. But it's OK, because I never let anyone ride unbuckled if I'm driving anyway.

Odd conversation during carpool:
(everyone was supposedly buckled when I turned on the car and pulled away from the curb)

Me: why does it sound like someone playing with a seatbelt?
DD: S (other child's name) isn't buckled.
(I'm already slowing down *from* 5 mph)
Me: This car doesn't go anywhere if everyone isn't buckled.
S: Really? (NOT fresh - astonished)
Me: Really.

She finished [re-]buckling within a minute and we were off. It occurred to me later that this 11 YO has grown up in a very high-tech world, and might have thought it was a vehicle feature, not a driver rule. THAT was funny.