The Litter Fairy

Yes, I was gone for a week. I'm sorry.

I had considered switching off comment moderation on this site, but thanks to the tosser who left a bunch of trolling messages, I think I'll keep things as they are. I know you think penises are funny, especially if you write about them IN BIG FUCKIN' CAPS, but not on my blog.

Anyway, this is one of my favourite recent PIFs, and it's a cinema - only regional campaign shown in London. I saw it only once, when I went to the second Harry Potter movie in 2002. There's the "clean" one that's safe for kiddies:



Or the dirty one that contains a Naughty Word:



They were posted to YouTube by someone who claims to have worked on the campaign themself, and describes the X - rated cut as "a very punchy copy". "Punchy?" Shock value can be effective (have a look at some of the TAC films I've profiled here) but this strikes me as trying just a bit too hard.

When I was at the cinema and this came on, it had a totally different voiceover with someone saying sarcastically "Who do you think cleans it up, the Litter Fairy?" According to this site, the Litter Fairy campaign was launched in 2004, so I'm going to assume the one I saw was an early version and then they made these two with new VOs.

And speaking of YouTube, here's my YouTube channel with more PIFs, some of which I'll put on this site later. Most of them are free ones snatched off various websites, but others I got from somewhere else that I can't tell you about because it might have broken copyright to put them up there.

UNICEF: Smurfs

Not really a PIF or PSA (or their foreign equivalent) because it's a charity awareness campaign from UNICEF. I don't know how old it is, but it's recent - 2005ish, I think.

You remember the Smurfs, don't you? Those little bouncy blue things from Belgium that jump up and down and sing all day in their whiny Smurfy voices. Why is it always the Europeans who come up with horrors like this? Anyway, UNICEF did the thing we'd all like to do to the Smurfs, but made it a hundred times scarier.

The Smurfs weren't around during WWII, so UNICEF brought the Blitz to them.

The film starts like any other crappy little Smurf cartoon. The singing, the dancing, the music, the fluttering butterflies, it's all there. THEN ... the bombs drop! Aargh! The music turns eerie, the sky darkens, Smurfs run for cover and get blown up and their stupid toadstool houses are knocked down. As Smurfs collapse and die everywhere, a baby Smurf screams, which is, I admit, not pleasant to watch. Finally, the endline comes up, and it translates as: "Don't let war affect the lives of children." Support UNICEF. Very effective, I think.

This wasn't supposed to be viewed by children, don't worry. It was shown in Belgium and only ever broadcast after the 9pm "watershed". Which is just as well, because over there that's like the equivalent of showing a film where Teletubbyland or the Hundred Acre Wood is bombed. It would traumatise your kids for life.

Face it, though, you've always wanted to get back at those annoying blue bastards, haven't you? Can we bomb Barney the dinosaur next?

WSIB: Workplace Safety

More videos kindly provided by jillc. Thank you! Incidentally, if anyone has requests, please do post them. I've already had two for The Finishing Line, which I'm trying to capture off of Screen Online. It will be here ASAP.

These two films are made by the WSIB (Workplace and Insurance Board), which pays out compensation to the victims of workplace accidents in the state of Ontario, Canada. Just like the TAC in Australia, it is in their interest to keep such accidents at a minimum. I don't know if their efforts stop said injured workers from running into the arms of those ambulance - chasing ghouls who advertise on late night TV, but it must be a relief to lucky Ontarians who can switch on at 3am without hearing "Have YOU been hurt in a trip or fall at work?"

Much like The Right Steps, the first one shows a woman falling off a ladder in spectacular fashion. The difference, of course, is that she's at work. What I wouldn't give to be her lawyer right now! Only instead of screaming for an ambulance as I'd do, she bravely stands up, covered in blood (and blimey, is that her arm hanging off?) and declares that this Wasn't An Accident. Oh, so you jumped off, did you? Well, no. The company should have replaced that ladder years ago, and why don't they have policy on two people doing a job? As if that's going to put your broken bones back together. Sue them, I say! Sue them!

Come to think of it, the visuals are quite shocking, but to quote jillc:

Though the impact of the gore is somewhat softened by the calm, almost reflective tone of the vic.

Then there's the second:



in which a bloke is crushed beneath a pile of falling boxes. He does accept that this is an accident, and after squeezing the company for every penny they've got, he has had reconstructive facial surgery and retired to Barbados. I love happy endings.

I'm kidding, sorry. He thinks he should have been concentrating on what he was doing, and that the supervisor should have reported the broken shelf. Because there really are no accidents! Got it now? The subtext, no not even the subtext, more like the in - yer - face punchline is "If you get hurt at work, it's your fault. You are stupid, or suicidal. And if it's not your fault, then someone at the company screwed up. Anyway, someone should have prevented it. No, you can't have compensation!"

Both films link to http://www.prevent-it.ca/, where you can look at nice pictures of serious injuries and things like that. Groovy.

Hatred of Foreigners Has Many Faces

The style of the subtitles on this clip tells me it was taken off of Tarrant on TV, so it's probably from the last decade. If you know what year it was first shown in, please let me know.

OK, this one is just plain confusing. Is the woman supposed to be ranting at you or him? It creeps me out how she's oh - so - chatty at the start but it's probably her who ran over and lynched that poor bloke. I wonder why anyone would agree to film something as daft as this. Perhaps she thought it was an awareness campaign about PMT? That, or she's been at the actor's dole queue for a very long time.

I won't even go into the issue of all this effing and blinding being broadcast during daytime viewing hours. Every Norwegian I've ever known had a mouth that would put the Osbournes to shame. Or am I being unfair to foreigners like the ad tells you not to? At least if I go to Norway, I now know some lovely words like "scum", "parasite" and "immigrant" to communicate with my new friends in their own language.

Fire Kills Anthology

I've got some good updates planned for the next week: The Right Steps (Got it now! Thanks, jillc!), Country Roads and a few others.

Meanwhile, here's a collection of Fire Kills PIFs from YouTube user LoafofPint. If he's reading this and would like me to take them down, I'll do it, but most of them are short so it makes it a lot easier to have them all in one video. If you wanted to watch these individually, you can find them at the official Fire Kills website. All fire safety campaigns in the UK have carried the Fire Kills logo since about 2000.

I can't find a year of first broadcast for some of these, but I've done my best. In order, we've got:

• Scary Movie (2007) - Viral with cheap "screamer" effects (so don't have your speakers up too loud!) But the message is still a good one: don't fall asleep with a lit cigarette in your hand.
• Christmas (2006) - How much bad luck can one family have? Reminds me of that old "Don't Give Fire a Chance" film - that's an update for another day.
• Backwards (2004) - Why are these people running about in reverse? Because you'll never escape from a house fire unless you know your escape plan backwards! Geddit? Oh, you didn't? Never mind.
  
  I noticed they rushed past a burning room that had the door wide open. This is probably why the fire spread so quickly in the first place. You're meant to close all doors at night so that won't happen. You'd think a fire safety campaign would set a better example, wouldn't you?
• Black (2004) - Quite possibly the most pointless PIF ever made.
• Doorstep Distraction (2004) - Would work equally well as a campaign against opening the door to salesmen.
• Dolly (2004) - Very creepy, and one of the few Fire Kills PIFs I've ever liked. I don't know anyone who would put candles in a young child's bedroom, but it's a danger, I suppose.
• Don't Try This At Home (2004) - I have no idea what the titles are trying to achieve.
• Feet (2004) - Why are people so patronising towards students? We don't get a maintenance grant now, you know. You don't have to hate us any more!
• Frances the Firefly (????) - COI TV Fillers hasn't got a date for it. This version was probably first shown in 2004 like the rest, but the original dates back to 1990 at the latest and has been cut down and edited for re - broadcast many times. At least it gives kids the right idea about our justice system: burn down the whole country, get a slap on the wrist!
• Habit (2004) - Nasty twist at the end there.
• Smokey (????) - This again is a more recent re - update, but the original was first shown in 1994. Why yes, it was made by the same company that does Wallace and Gromit. How did you ever guess?
• Spec (2004) - I used to have an annoying boss called James. Wonder if it's the same bloke? We live in hope.
• TV Distraction (2004) - No, I didn't turn the cooker off. Oh, shit!

The problem with most of these is that they seem to be so concerned with saving on government PIF budget (really, why was "Black" ever made?) and showing off flashy film - making effects that the message itself is lost.

Another request, if anyone's reading this: Does anyone have, or know of, a YouTube copy of a 70s (I think) PIF showing a man working out how to escape from his caravan in the event of fire? Contained the immortal line "Stan? Why are we climbing out of the window, Stan?"

Passive Smoking: Marie

According to the person who posted this French public health awareness commercial, it won a 2005 Cannes Silver/Clio Bronze award for advertising. I'm pretty sure it was originally in French, but the grim dub fits with the visuals.

So, we're told, since Marie has resided at her current address, she's smoked - er, a LOT of cigarettes. They're all over the floor, look! And in the car! And floating in the fish tank! I know the French like their Gauloises and what have you, but this is pushing it. Especially when we find out that she's only seven years old. "When you smoke, non - smokers smoke too," says the endline. I feel REALLY sorry for Marie's family then, because one commenter said:

That's around 50-60 cigarettes a day, if my calculations are correct.

Not only is everyone else breathing in her second hand smoke. At this rate, she'll have lung cancer before she's out of her teens. I think she should be taken into care immediately, and her parents prosecuted for giving cigarettes to a seven - year - old. And cruelty to the goldfish. That'll teach 'em.

Still, it's a twist you don't see coming (unless you've seen the PIF before), and a lot more tasteful than the recent UK campaign with young children breathing cigarette smoke out of their noses. I might post about that one another time. I think the simple visuals here work a lot better than deliberate "shock tactics", but maybe that's just me.