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"There really are no accidents"
April 14, 2008 2:05 AM Subscribe

Absolutely horrifying, not for the squeamish, you've been warned Canadian public service announcements. Also, the only slightly less gory German educational film "Forklift driver Klaus". An unaired and disturbingly violent Canadian PSA on domestic violence. Graphically violent Irish PSAs warning against speeding, terrorism and Harry Chapin. A French Canadian worker slowly and gruesomely loses his arm. An Australian PSA featuring a blood-covered baby. Finally, an essay (with linked video examples) by a marketing consultant on "Turn-off Tactics" in public service advertisements.
posted by orthogonality (65 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite

Seriously. Honestly, seriously. The first segment of the first link will give you fucking nightmares, and the rest of them aren't much better.

What, you couldn't have held onto this one until daybreak?

Can't sleep. Canadian PSA directors will eat me.
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 2:24 AM on April 14, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

This guy has uploaded dozens of traffic safety PSAs from around the world. This one is hilarious.
posted by stammer at 2:25 AM on April 14, 2008

As a bit of an antidote, here is the video for a song inspired by an Australian PSA. Which I have definitely posted before, and will continue to post any time I can as it consists of two parts awesome and one part win.
posted by maxwelton at 2:30 AM on April 14, 2008

NZ has heaps of these ads, the current one drawing complaints is here.
posted by scodger at 2:33 AM on April 14, 2008

I think "Staplerfahrer Klaus" was intended to be a comedy/horror film in the guise of a factory safety film.
posted by acb at 2:34 AM on April 14, 2008

I'm gonna need a whole herd of unicorns to chase that first one.
posted by ubernostrum at 3:00 AM on April 14, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

Orthogonality: your "Forklift driver Klaus" link is directing me back to this FPP. Did you forget to paste in the URL? Anyway, that particular link is probably a double*.

*Sample comment from that thread, from 2005: "Is there anyone who hasn't seen this? This thing is so old it almost predates the internets."
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:10 AM on April 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Those accident prone Canadian zombies are so so much more considerate than American zombies.
posted by jaimev at 3:11 AM on April 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

/me aborts any plans to work in the food service industry.
posted by furtive at 3:15 AM on April 14, 2008

Double.
posted by Space Coyote at 3:18 AM on April 14, 2008

I won't look. I don't drive, I don't use heavy machinery or power tools, and I rarely make toast while I'm in the bath, so I'll just hope these don't apply to me.

But I wonder how effective these are on people who enjoy watching gory films and perhaps are a bit inured to any blood and guts they see on a screen?
posted by pracowity at 3:20 AM on April 14, 2008

flapjax at midnite writes "Orthogonality: your 'Forklift driver Klaus' link is directing me back to this FPP. Did you forget to paste in the URL? Anyway, that particular link is probably a double*."

Sorry, and thanks.

Space Coyote writes "Double."

Oh, crap.
posted by orthogonality at 3:28 AM on April 14, 2008

Oh, crap.

Hey, happens to the best of us, sooner or later!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:31 AM on April 14, 2008

I'm in the bath right now, making eggs and toast. Mmm, breakfast.

Okay, not really. But I'm not going to watch any of these (thanks for the clear warnings, actually, I appreciate it.) The first horrifyingly blood-curdling PSA I ever saw, the subject of the post Space Coyote linked to, was enough to have me write the CRTC, and I have never done anything like that before. (They CCed it to the ASC, which is where ad complaints are supposed to go, if anyone's curious.)

I felt like I aged a few years when I did that - get off my lawn, etc - but honestly, I just don't think it is necessary to put that on television. It was aired during a hockey game! I watched hockey games when I was 5. Many 5 years old end up watching hockey. Why would you ever throw screaming horror into the middle of a nice, good, clean, family-friendly event? (Yeah, hockey has fights and pushing, but so do schoolyards.)

I appreciate that people should be aware of dangers, but I am convinced that it can be done without traumatizing the entirety of society. Make people who get hired in a kitchen watch Commercial Kitchens Will Kill You (Slowly And Horribly), or whatever, if you really must, but I don't see why the general population has to see it. In most situations the word "traumatizing" is hyperbole - I don't think it is here.

If this is a good idea, shouldn't we have everyone watch the first 5 minutes of Saving Private Ryan before the 6 o'clock news every night? War's bad and preventable. It's okay that little kids might be watching. It's a lesson! Ugh.
posted by blacklite at 3:37 AM on April 14, 2008

Hey, happens to the best of us, sooner or later!

THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS
posted by Sticherbeast at 3:40 AM on April 14, 2008 [3 favorites has favorites]

This is sad and hilarious.
posted by orthogonality at 3:42 AM on April 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

That Queensland one will give me nightmares. The sure as hell don't have anything like that on TV in Canberra.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 3:53 AM on April 14, 2008

Oop, sorry about the double comment up there.

This is a story from The Age about someone getting scalped in a work accident that I found in one of the earlier posts from a comment by madamjujujive. It's completely horrifying but a good read all the same.
posted by blacklite at 4:05 AM on April 14, 2008

I'd love to see some data supporting whether or not shock tactics work in matters like these. I'm going to suspect not. My suspicion is that psychologically, these things tend to get filed away with all the other violent and troubling images we see in daily media, and exist in that region of the memory that has no bearing or influence on our day to day life.

From my own experience, I don't know if the situation is exactly analogous, but I suffered from PTSD for about 18 months after 9/11 (without overdramatizing it, I was there that day, and heard and saw first-hand some incredibly troubling things like so many did), and part of the process was to put some distance between the event and your daily life (as a healthy mind would do). It's okay to remember it, but not re-live it, which is what I was doing every day during that time. Was doing okay until I forced myself to watch United 93 on morning on cable. Basically, it triggered a whole bunch of unresolved feelings and memories, and felt physically ill for a couple of days... but, slowly that drifted to the back of my mind, as it should.

I guess what I'm saying is that, yes, these images are in some cases horrifying, but they're largely written for advertising awards, and do not serve as useful public service.

I'll be happy to be proven wrong (to the extent that's possible).
posted by psmealey at 4:07 AM on April 14, 2008

Studies have shown that fear appeals tend to be ineffective on those that consider themselves to be "at-risk" from problem behaviours - ie, a disturbing anti-smoking advert will have little effect on heavy smokers who are good at rationizing out their behaviour, and more motivation to do so because they have little belief in their capability to change their behaviour - so it's really the only option to deal with a large fear injection.

There was an interesting study (unfortunately, not able to find) on miners in I believe australia that discovered that those most at risk from accidents (a good proportion of the workers) were the least likely to follow protocols designed to protect them, such as always wearing a helmet and safety glasses. The reason, it turned out, was that they (and presumably, people in other dangerous occupations) were extremely fatalistic in their thinking, and believe that "if you're gonna go, you're gonna go" and so didn't bother with minor safety considerations, prefering to believe in fate. In their defence, however, if two tonnes of rock fall on you, a helmet won't do much.
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 4:13 AM on April 14, 2008

Wow, that first one is hard core. I've been in the UK for the past few months and there seems to be a great emphasis on instilling fear within the populace via commercials and warning signs; there are lots of gruesome commercials and signs with "DANGER OF DEATH!" written on them, which is not something I am used to from the States.

For example, watch this child-reanimating PSA, which blew my mind the first time I saw it. (My girlfriend likes to say it's like the commercial is daring you to hit kids at variable speeds to test their findings.) Also, this seat belt PSA is shocking and disturbing. The ad that jack_mo linked is also pretty messed up.
posted by m0nm0n at 4:22 AM on April 14, 2008

I have no idea how effective that first Canadian PSA set in the restaurant kitchen is. I do know that it was horrifying to watch even once when it was playing here (I think it's stopped now), and that I dove for the remote every time that cheerful, doomed young woman started speaking on camera and blaming herself again every time afterwards.

I've talked with a couple of people who remember the scalding liquid in the pot as oil rather than water. It's as if the oil on the floor and in the fry vats were confounded with the boiling water and the ad made even more horrific than it really was meant to be.
posted by maudlin at 4:23 AM on April 14, 2008

This recent thread is also chock-a-block full of shock and horror in the interests of public safety.
posted by m0nm0n at 4:26 AM on April 14, 2008

I've talked with a couple of people who remember the scalding liquid in the pot as oil rather than water.

Either way, she would not have been able to lift it off the stove (or it would have been so much of a struggle, she would have thought twice about trying it), so I call bullshit on the whole scenario, which was contrived to give us nightmares.
posted by psmealey at 4:29 AM on April 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I think you guys are fooling yourselves if you think these kinds of accidents don't really happen. I was on the health & safety committee at two different jobs in Ontario over the span of about four years and the case studies we heard were bone-chilling.
posted by loiseau at 4:43 AM on April 14, 2008

Yeah, I've worked as a waitress in a couple of different restaurants. We were either lucky or especially well-trained, but I can't remember any horrific accidents, including mishaps with the bigass table saw used to split the chickens. I have wiped out on my share of slick kitchen floors while carrying 5 full plates of hot food, but wound up with nothing worse than bruises and a tetanus shot.

But people do lift big, heavy pots of water on and off the stove. Even small kitchen staff can be quite strong. So that kitchen accident looked sickeningly plausible to me. I just didn't need to see it, that's all.
posted by maudlin at 4:53 AM on April 14, 2008

(Sorry, bandsaw, not table saw. Swiss Chalet chickens aren't that tough.)
posted by maudlin at 4:55 AM on April 14, 2008

loiseau writes "I think you guys are fooling yourselves if you think these kinds of accidents don't really happen. I was on the health & safety committee at two different jobs in Ontario"

Perhaps these sort of things only happen in Canada.
posted by orthogonality at 4:55 AM on April 14, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

I wonder how effective these are on people who enjoy watching gory films and perhaps are a bit inured to any blood and guts they see on a screen?

Exactly what I was wondering. Do the kiddies who go to "Hostel" and "Wolf Creek" for entertainment giggle at these?
posted by jbickers at 5:01 AM on April 14, 2008

New Zealand seems to have a small industry devoted to coming up with gory ads. The current fashion is for ads that look like promotions for normal but fictional products to lull you into complacency; examples: one, two, three, and four.
posted by AndrewStephens at 5:12 AM on April 14, 2008

"Either way, she would not have been able to lift it off the stove (or it would have been so much of a struggle, she would have thought twice about trying it), so I call bullshit on the whole scenario, which was contrived to give us nightmares."

Derail, but, I've lifted pots full of boiling water far larger (and fuller) than that working as a chef, and I'm not particularly strong, so has my last boss, who's female, if that was your angle. You use muscles at the back of your upper arms, don't know what they are called but they get strong carrying pots like that back and forth every day. I've also slipped and scolded myself, which is also easy to do. Nothing close to that bad, but it's entirely possible.

And as far as caution goes, well, taking risks with hot things comes with the job. You're not going to go very far if you're constantly asking other people to lift your pots for you, especially if you're a girl in a very male-dominated industry. So i'm reading too much into it but basically you're totally wrong, have a nice day :)
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 5:15 AM on April 14, 2008

I don't think anyone is denying that they happen, loiseau. We were debating the effectiveness of the technique is all. For my part, they just make me want to punch the creative director in the stomach. As for the boiling pot of whatever, it just seemed unlikely (really fucking stupid) for someone to try to lift and carry a cumbersome, 30+ lb. pot of boiling liquid by herself. Point taken from those in the know, however. That one also irritated me for the gratuitous narrative flourishes (attractive young woman about to get married... I guess that makes it all the more tragic). I really hate it when ads are so ham-fisted in their attempts to maniplate.

For as stomach churning as those were, YouTube comments never disappoint with respect to showcasing some of the worst qualities humans can possess.
posted by psmealey at 5:25 AM on April 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

The Canadian boiling pot of water one is still on the air, or at least it was earlier this year. I had heard about it from an early Metafilter post, but after seeing it my poor roommate came running out of the living room completely traumatized...
posted by fermezporte at 5:27 AM on April 14, 2008

But people do lift big, heavy pots of water on and off the stove.

As a fifteen-year-old girl, I worked in the kitchen at KFC and I used to lift pails of scalding hot oil and pour them back into the cookers after they'd been cleaned. The pails were significantly larger than the pot in that commercial. I'd estimate that they weighed between 40 and 50 pounds. The sight of me doing it used to freak out my male co-workers, but really it was something I could do without strain.

I did have an accident once when I was pulling a (45-pound?) tub of steaming hot oil out from below a fryer. I started to slip a little on the greasy floor, so I tried to push the tub back into the cabinet and then let go. I didn't push it far enough back in and the tub tipped and spilled hot oil on my feet. I had third degree burns. I worked with someone else who had a nearly identical accident, and her burns were more severe than mine.

Another time I was carrying a 50-pound box of raw chicken packed in ice and trying to put it in the thawing sink. I got as far as heaving it up to the edge of the sink before I slipped and fell on the floor. The box of chicken wobbled on the ledge for a few seconds and then fell. I saw it coming and rolled out of the way so it landed beside me rather than on top of me.

Considering how easily accidents can happen, it always surprised me how rarely they do. It does take vigilance to prevent them, but even then they can still happen.
posted by orange swan at 5:40 AM on April 14, 2008

Just for the record, my observation had nothing whatsoever to do with the character being female. Fuck, I'm a 220 lb. man, and if someone tells me to lift a full 10 gallon pot off of a hot stove, I'm going to ask someone for help regardless of gender, color, creed or specific disability. But, yes I have never worked in a kitchen, so I stand corrected.
posted by psmealey at 5:43 AM on April 14, 2008

These PSAs are amazing, thanks for this. A friend of mine sent me the Canadian PSAs some time ago, and I can't get the chef one out of my head. This ad campaign makes me think that all of Canada wanders around in this terrified, anxious, but helpful and communitarian haze, constantly awaiting some sort of calamity to forestall.

(Incidentally, those of you who find the chef one implausible might not know the right people in the cooking industry. I once met a sous-chef whose body has been absolutely ruined by his dream profession, although he was certainly in good spirits about it. Missing fingers, burns, steel rods in the spine, braces on the knees.... Literally flopping gallons of boiling water onto your own face may be a bit extreme, but it's not outside the realm of impossibility, especially if people aren't taking care of the place.)

It's also interesting that these PSAs are far more violent than any American PSAs I can recall. The closest comparison is a seatbelt ad which began as a little story about boys in a car trying to attract the attention of girls in another car, with abrupt and lethal results. Some people were also a bit put off by the David Fincher anti-smoking adverts (the coughing fetus one was his), but I just found them silly, and a friend of mine from high school just ran for a smoke as soon as they came on.
posted by Sticherbeast at 5:51 AM on April 14, 2008

I don't know if it's the amount of violence we see on TV and in movies but these ads don't terrify me. I find them moving but there will be no nightmares.

I do think these kinds of PSAs are more common here... I remember friends remarking about these ads in the Toronto subway last year.
posted by loiseau at 6:15 AM on April 14, 2008

It was thanks to a similar MetaFilter post that I clued in about one of these coming on and managed to shut down the TV before my three year old and two year old saw them. Like someone else mentioned above, they were on during a hockey game.

CBCfilter question - has any other Canuck noticed rather a lot of completely inappropriate ads during hockey games any more? I'm not talking about the late night west coast games, but the before prime time starts. There's these horrible PSAs, there was an ad about a completely horrible sexual 'comedy' and on Saturday night there was an ad for the video "Aliens." Has the CBC forgotten kids watch this stuff?
posted by Zinger at 6:21 AM on April 14, 2008

No. Not again. Not that fucking kitchen PSA.
The blood curdling screams.
Gah.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 6:25 AM on April 14, 2008

It was aired during a hockey game! I watched hockey games when I was 5. Many 5 years old end up watching hockey. Why would you ever throw screaming horror into the middle of a nice, good, clean, family-friendly event?

I wonder how many five-year-olds saw Richard Zednick get his neck sliced open in Buffalo live back in February. I won't post a YouTube link; there's enough info to find it in that last sentence if you're really interested. Spoiler: He lived.
posted by Doohickie at 6:26 AM on April 14, 2008

If you'd have just done a search for EAAAARRRGAHHHHHHD! you'd have found the old thread.
posted by cashman at 6:38 AM on April 14, 2008 [5 favorites has favorites]

I still haven't watched them.
posted by cashman at 6:40 AM on April 14, 2008

As a bit of an antidote, here is the video for a song inspired by an Australian PSA. Which I have definitely posted before, and will continue to post any time I can as it consists of two parts awesome and one part win.

I can't imagine the context for inserting TISM pops up often, well done for remaining vigilant!
posted by steerpike at 6:57 AM on April 14, 2008

This ad campaign makes me think that all of Canada wanders around in this terrified, anxious, but helpful and communitarian haze, constantly awaiting some sort of calamity to forestall.

Ah, so it's working.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 7:29 AM on April 14, 2008

Canada: Vigilance before happenstance.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:55 AM on April 14, 2008

Those are really horrible.

Kitty antidote.
posted by goo at 7:57 AM on April 14, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Thanks, goo.
posted by owhydididoit at 8:20 AM on April 14, 2008

Holy shit.
posted by Mister_A at 8:35 AM on April 14, 2008

Thanks to Canada's propensity for horrifying PSAs (the unaired domestic violence PSAs, Ontario's anti-smoking campaigns) and watching reels of Cannes-nominated advertisements, many of which are equally shocking European PSAs, my worst nightmare is now being trapped somewhere where I'm forced to watch PSAs non-stop until eventually I suffered a nervous breakdown. Even now, in the middle of the day, I'm getting chills, and I haven't even watched any of the links (I know where that road leads).
posted by chrominance at 8:59 AM on April 14, 2008

Another antidote to all that horror, from Mr Cholmondley Warner
posted by genesta at 9:40 AM on April 14, 2008

Not really gory, but nevertheless this PSA for seatbelts used to scare me when I was a kid.
posted by Oriole Adams at 9:52 AM on April 14, 2008

This 'gore porn' has an immediate viceral impact. Maybe it's part of our primitive brain 'hard wired' and forgotten, from eons ago to watch out for the crouching Saber Tooth! If people had this kind of reaction to 'safe sex' or AIDS prevention 'public service announcements', there would be a lot less misery.
posted by kokomo at 10:40 AM on April 14, 2008

A pot of hot liquid is truly a dangerous thing; in fact, you can never tell when a boiling pot on a stove is going to end up scalding your entire country.

Lee Atwater, former chairman of the RNC, architect of the Willie Horton campaign against Michael Dukakis and indeed the greatest modern exponent of the entire 'dirty tricks' approach to electoral politics-- he was mentor to Karl Rove and G.W. Bush, among many other things-- lost his baby brother to a pot of hot oil his brother pulled down on himself from the stove in the family kitchen:

when Atwater was 5 years old, his baby brother Joe was scalded to death in a ghastly kitchen accident to which young Lee was witness. He refused to talk about this awful event throughout his lifetime, but on the basis of various shards of evidence Brady [his biographer] concludes that it haunted and shaped him in essential ways...

I'd argue you could see his whole political career as cooking up one pot of boiling oil after another to pour on his opponents, actually, an endless repetition of a particularly horrible Primal Scene we are all now paying dearly for.
posted by jamjam at 11:10 AM on April 14, 2008

lost his baby brother
posted by jamjam at 11:14 AM on April 14, 2008

The boiling pot one doesn't really bother me. But just to prove I'm human, that seat belt one really gave me the willies.
posted by evilcolonel at 11:45 AM on April 14, 2008

The best part of wakin' up...
posted by telstar at 12:03 PM on April 14, 2008

This 'gore porn' has an immediate viceral impact.

Of course it does, but that was my question earlier: does it have a lasting impact? I don't think so, and I really haven't seen any evidence other than some anecdotal comments. I seems to me that a sudden fright caused by a grisly image (which because it's in an advert you know is make-believe) is likely to be forgotten quickly, particularly while you are in the middle of a humdrum situation or task. Maybe it gets people talking about it, which is better than nothing, but it still seems gratuitous to me.

I really don't know what can be done about reducing accidents at home, but many of the friends I've had that have managed large physical plants or construction projects have always told me that the only way to minimize workplace accidents is through constant repetition, training, preparation, workplace hygiene and management enforcement of all of the above. Still, they will happen from time to time.
posted by psmealey at 12:44 PM on April 14, 2008

From PSA to PTSD in 45 seconds.
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:49 PM on April 14, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

m0nm0n writes 'I've been in the UK for the past few months and there seems to be a great emphasis on instilling fear within the populace via commercials and warning signs; there are lots of gruesome commercials and signs with "DANGER OF DEATH!" written on them, which is not something I am used to from the States.'

'Instilling fear in the populace'? I can't really see a problem with 'Danger Of Death' signs on stuff that is actually likely to kill you. (They only ever appear on stuff like electricity substations and pylons, after all.)

As for the gruesome adverts, I'm really struggling to Google up any good data, but I'm inclined to think they must have at least some impact, and there must be data to back it up - otherwise, wouldn't safety campaigners have changed to softer tactics? It's not like there's some sinister political motive behind encouraging people to wear seatbelts/drive safely/stop smoking/etc.. Unless they're all a covert plot to soften us up for bullshit fear-mongering of the OMG TERRORISTS EVERYWHERE! sort.
posted by jack_mo at 3:57 PM on April 14, 2008

Which I have definitely posted before, and will continue to post any time I can as it consists of two parts awesome and one part win.

TISM neither needs nor accepts apologies!
posted by Wolof at 8:01 PM on April 14, 2008

Perhaps they are using another definition of unaired, which I was previously unaware of. I saw the coffee ad many times when I was younger.
posted by ryanfou at 8:18 PM on April 14, 2008

'Instilling fear in the populace'? I can't really see a problem with 'Danger Of Death' signs on stuff that is actually likely to kill you. (They only ever appear on stuff like electricity substations and pylons, after all.)

It seems to me that, in general, there are a lot of "We're watching you!" and "This is for your own good!" types of messages here. The "Danger of death" signs are one example, even though they are typically only near electricals, as you say (I could have sworn I saw one on the tube as well). The "Tiredness Kills!" signs on the motorways are another example, as are the, "This woman [who is currently taking a shower and singing] is a benefits fraudster, and we're about to bust her!" and the, "There's no escape for car tax evaders!" radio commercials play into it too. The ubiquitous CCTV cameras don't help, either.

It's just a different cultural atmosphere than in the US. My family back home finds the examples amusing as well. It's a different way of dealing with the public that is more confrontational and shocking, and that is not something to which I am accustomed.
posted by m0nm0n at 2:01 AM on April 15, 2008

It's a different way of dealing with the public that is more confrontational and shocking, and that is not something to which I am accustomed.

Fair enough. I feel exactly the same about countries where the policemen have guns - presumably completely normal to residents of those countries, but genuinely scary if you're not used to it. (But I do think that 'Danger of death' and 'Tiredness kills' signs are completely different to the Big Brother-ish announcements about car tax, ubiquitous CCTV, etc. - tired drivers and high voltages are genuinely dangerous, after all.)
posted by jack_mo at 4:39 PM on April 17, 2008

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