Public service ads

Dudess

These were like highly effective mini dramas in the eighties (and probably more so the seventies). They seemed to be mostly directed at kids, and they scared the livin' shite out of me!

Remember the one about the dangers of wearing a nightie that's made of synthetic fibre and standing too close to the fire? Or the constant one with the little lad climbing onto the electric pylon to retrieve his ball and being electrocuted? Or the one with the toddler drowning in a paddling pool?

And loads of others - road safety obviously, leaving a lit cigarette in the ashtray overnight leading to the house going up in flames etc.
Why aren't these shown any more? I suppose maybe their equivalent today would be the likes of eircom Phonewatch's infuriating "BURGLARS!" campaign.

Bring back the old ones, I say! We don't need some pompous git with a preachy voice telling us what to do, a bunch of poorly acted short films would do a far better job!

Icequeen

I remember the road safety ad with the white dog and it went

1. THINK FIRST. Find the safest place to cross, then stop.

2. STOP. Stand on the pavement near the curb.

3. USE YOUR EYES AND EARS. Look all around for traffic, and listen.

4. WAIT UNTIL IT'S SAFE TO CROSS. If traffic is coming, let it pass.

5. LOOK AND LISTEN. When it's safe, walk straight across the road.

6. ARRIVE ALIVE. Keep looking and listening for traffic while you cross.

I ****ing hated that dog, he creeped me out like clowns do, I can't find him on the web though but he was like something out of "Wonderly Wagon" and I ****ing hated that too!!!! creepy poxy Irish attempts at media!!!!

Icequeen

Sorry for all the curses but that dog really did have an affect on me and thanks for the reminder dudess ya f^%"

Ruu_Old

That dog was like a god to us in school, you take that back! How can you not like the catchy song!?!

Dudess

Icequeen wrote:

Sorry for all the curses but that dog really did have an affect on me and thanks for the reminder dudess ya f^%"

Glad to open up old wounds!

You have very vague memories of this because it was the dog out of Wanderly Wagon - Judge. And it was the Safe Cross Code - one of the most famous aspects of Irish popular culture. You're talking about it as if it was something obscure! And Wanderly Wagon was brilliant!

All together now:

ONE! Look for a safe place.
TWO! Don’t hurry, stop and wait.
THREE! Look all around and listen before you cross the road, remember,
FOUR! Let all the traffic pass you
FIVE! Then walking straight across you.
SIX! KEEP WATCHING!
That’s the Safe Cross Code

Know the Safe Cross Code

(and the best part)
KNOW THE CODE!!!

Those kids sounded demented!

Ah, here's a nice link: http://crookedtimber.org/2007/01/25/toward-a-catalog-of-irish-public-service-ads/

Yep, the very stern woman in the nightie/fire ad DID go on to play the Whirligig Witch in Fortycoats.

WindSock

Judge was the dog

Ruu_Old

There was plenty of electricity ones, farmers and electricity wires. Such a pity there isn't any video clips of these. We were so poor at that time and if you were LUCKY to have a video tape, you only had the one.

stovelid

Wasn't there a "where's Grandad" one where the grandad falls in the river on a picnic or something?

I was brought up in England and remember a really scary one of a kid going into a power station to get a frisbee and getting fried.

Scared me to death.

Dudess

Yep, there was indeed a "where's Grandad" one. Think it featured a family out for a picnic or something on the river-bank and suddenly Grandad was nowhere to be seen - the implication being that he'd drowned. What else could it have been? They were by a river! Although there was no "splash" sound that I can remember.

Growing up in England, you might remember another water safety one - featuring a guy dressed up as Death and hovering around a really dreary, swampy stretch of water. It's voiced by Donald Pleasance (for the uninitiated - Michael Myers' psychiatrist in Halloween). He has one of the creepiest voices... EVER!!!

superdudeman007

We still have them but now they use cheesy pop music to tell us about the energy conservation thing (the making of which must have wasted more energy than it saved), getting on the register of electors (but if you're not on it already you can't care that much about voting) or how to overtake safely :rolleyes:

Dudess

Oh yeah, there was that 'Race Against Waste' thing. And there are the Safefood ones featuring those TERRIBLE mothers who have "allowed" their super-sensitive and delicate offspring to come into contact with extremely rare killer parasites that give them a sick stomach for a few hours. These mothers are so AWFUL that their faces are blurred and their voices made to sound like robotic men's.

So they do still exist, but I guess it's the style of the old ones - they'll never make 'em like those again. Polished production will never be as effective as gritty authenticity!

trout

i have a dim memory of a public service-y ad which featured a woman holding a sponge, and every time she squeezed the sponge you would hear a sick baby cough ... longer and longer squeezes for longer and more rattly coughs as the camera zoomed in ... i think the sponge got darker and more diseased looking each time ... i guess it was to make you immunise your kids against whooping cough

that ad gave me the creeps ... would have been the mid 70's ... no-one else seems to remember it though, so I'm starting to doubt my sanity.

I think the woman holding the sponge was the same lady in the nighty ad ... and she was a famous theatre actress ... Anna Maughan or similar ??

Gauge

Anyone remember an ad for fire safety... a bunch of moths flying around a candle and one gets too close and burns to death screaming like a child. It scared the hell out of me when I was a kid and I used to run out of the room screaming when it came on.

There was another one to do with the IRA and terrorism, set to the tune of Cat's in the Cradle. Something about the dad being a member of the IRA and his son follows in his footsteps and is killed. Very depressing.

murphaph

trout wrote:

i have a dim memory of a public service-y ad which featured a woman holding a sponge, and every time she squeezed the sponge you would hear a sick baby cough ... longer and longer squeezes for longer and more rattly coughs as the camera zoomed in ... i think the sponge got darker and more diseased looking each time ... i guess it was to make you immunise your kids against whooping cough

that ad gave me the creeps ... would have been the mid 70's ... no-one else seems to remember it though, so I'm starting to doubt my sanity.

Jaysus I remember that. It gave me the creeps big time, actually, all of those ads did.

stovelid

Dudess wrote:

Growing up in England, you might remember another water safety one - featuring a guy dressed up as Death and hovering around a really dreary, swampy stretch of water. It's voiced by Donald Pleasance (for the uninitiated - Michael Myers' psychiatrist in Halloween). He has one of the creepiest voices... EVER!!!

Don't remember this one. Sounds scary, maybe just as well.

What about the one (in Ireland) where the doctor is going BAH! in the deaf child's ear with a nun(?) in the background? Think it was for rubella vaccination.

Dudess

Oh good Christ! That 'BAH!' one was warped! Yes it was a nun.

Nuns, like clowns, are scary to kids.

Zaph

Dudess wrote:

Growing up in England, you might remember another water safety one - featuring a guy dressed up as Death and hovering around a really dreary, swampy stretch of water. It's voiced by Donald Pleasance (for the uninitiated - Michael Myers' psychiatrist in Halloween). He has one of the creepiest voices... EVER!!!

That ad scared the crap out of me every time it came on. There's probably a whole generation mentally scarred for life because of that ad.

trout wrote:

i have a dim memory of a public service-y ad which featured a woman holding a sponge, and every time she squeezed the sponge you would hear a sick baby cough ... longer and longer squeezes for longer and more rattly coughs as the camera zoomed in ... i think the sponge got darker and more diseased looking each time ... i guess it was to make you immunise your kids against whooping cough

that ad gave me the creeps ... would have been the mid 70's ... no-one else seems to remember it though, so I'm starting to doubt my sanity.

I'd completely forgotten about that ad. That was nearly as creepy as the Death and water ad.

Dudess

I remember there being a bit of an obsession in Ireland with whooping cough in the early eighties. Wonder was it more common back then?

stovelid

Dudess, I think I found the Donald Pleasance ad on YouTube

That would have terrified me as a kid. :eek:

Ruu_Old

My brother had to get 'the cure' for the whooping cough, that would have been late eighties. Another friend in school said that he heard that you had to drink blood from a skull to cure it.

c - 13

I'm a bit young to remember most of these ones, would love to see them, I remember the ones about the ESB powerstations -

Wasnt there one where a bunch of kids threw some young lads ball up onthe the powerstation and his brother climbed up to get it and got killed ? I was scared to want by those powerstations for a week or so after first seeing thet Ad ! :eek:

I think I asked this on a different thread about public service ads, I havent met anyone else who remembers it but it was a short cartoon about the dangers of playing with matches -
- Some young fly wanted to be a firefly
- Some rebellious firefly got him to steal matches
- Helped the fly to tie one to his back and lit it for him
- Hey Presto, the fly is now a firefly
- Off he flies happy out until , OH NO, the match burns his wings off
- Final scene is the fly in a hospital bed, bandaged out
- Final message "Dont play with matches"

Please tell me someone else remembers this bacause if I imagined it i'm seriously going to have to start worrying about my sanity.

spurious

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1979to2006/filmindex.htm

Knock yourselves out. Frisbee and Death by the lake are both there.

This guy has lots too:http://youtube.com/profile?user=strongmike

stovelid

spurious wrote:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1979to2006/filmindex.htm

Knock yourselves out. Frisbee and Death by the lake are both there.

This guy has lots too:http://youtube.com/profile?user=strongmike

Clunk click on every trip. Classic!

BLITZ_Molloy

My Dad worked for the ESB and gave that video of the guy retrieving the ball and getting killed to our school. Scared the bejasus out of my brother and his class.

Five years later I'm in either snr infants or 1st class. Still really young. ESB bring out the updated, less violent tape. My dad and brother dismiss it as ****e so we just give the school the old one again to scare the **** out of myself and the rest of the 6 year olds.

Mrs. MacGyver

The safety ad with the cigarette and the sofa going on fire from the mid 80's freaked me out (both my parents smoked) i used to check every night that the house wasnt on fire downstairs . I was too scared after seeing the ad once than i used to cry and run out of the kitchen . Have been afraid of fire since. it had its desired effect!

kelle

trout wrote:

i have a dim memory of a public service-y ad which featured a woman holding a sponge, and every time she squeezed the sponge you would hear a sick baby cough ... longer and longer squeezes for longer and more rattly coughs as the camera zoomed in ... i think the sponge got darker and more diseased looking each time ... i guess it was to make you immunise your kids against whooping cough

that ad gave me the creeps ... would have been the mid 70's ... no-one else seems to remember it though, so I'm starting to doubt my sanity.

I think the woman holding the sponge was the same lady in the nighty ad ... and she was a famous theatre actress ... Anna Maughan or similar ??

That reminds me of the TV licence ad from the 80s, where the lemon shaped sponge said he wasn't going to get a licence because he couldn't be bothered paying a miserable 15p a day( I think), then someone would come in and squeeze his neck. The advert was subsequently banned as it upset a lot of children!

G Luxel

There are a number of these ads I remembered from the eighties or maybe earlier:

There is the one about rabies and shows pictures of a dog jumping from a boat and a man in bed in agony. A similiar ad is a cartoon with a dog left out, running wild with other dogs and killing sheep. The end of the ad said 'running free, he could be a killer'.

There was another ad about sweets and what not to give to children, a big X sign appears over a bottle of lemonade.

A road safety ad featuring cars like a Fiat I28 approaching a bypass junction, probably somewhere in Dublin and the ad quoted something like Indicate Right, move out slowly......

A really scary ad featured a car crash, a body lying on a trolley covered with a sheet and at the end a black Mercedes hearse driving slowly on the road.
Not sure if it is the same ad but there a white Hillman Hunter being driven by a man and some guy lets off a toy soldier from a elastic band, hitting the windscreen and causing a crash?

nlgbbbblth

There's two DVDs of UK public information films called Charley Says 1 and 2. They're pretty good. Cheap enough.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Charley-Says-Public-Information-Films/dp/B0001HK0JI/ref=pd_bxgy_d_h__text_b/026-0759811-7418044
They include
- 'CLUNK CLICK'
- Play Safe - power stations. Three different types. Kites, frisbee etc.
- Lonely Water (scariest ever)

I wrote to RTE about the Irish equivalents wondering if there was any possibility of releasing them.
They told me that the advertisments were not owned by them so no go.

I don't have any of the Irish public information films sadly. Did have a few on a videotape from the mid-1980s but it vanished when I was in college.

I might try the IFI Archive as I assume they still exist in some form. Getting copies of them would another thing though.

My favourites of the Irish ones were the aforementioned three part pond / oil drum / grandad plus the nun shouting BA!

also
- Water safety: family go swimming immediately after picnic and one of them drowns. Some trips often end in tragedy...

- Deafness: guy in pub can't make out a word of what people are saying. Another one showed a drummer going deaf.

- St Vincent de Paul: Mary is 70 and homeless Gus. Downbeat stuff. Give a little, it could help a lot.

- Safety belts: Tim has a new car. Fiat 131. But has tremendous difficulty in putting on the safety belt.

- Industrial accident: Guy overloads a plug and gets fried. His friend runs in and touchs him. Bad move.

- Metric system: Can you show me a metre?

stovelid

Never seen these ones before..3 parts, over 20 mins long.

Pretty disturbing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omdCXEdVCT0&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15CFF8DoYFc&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6qU90IhCrk&mode=related&search=

I can't believe they showed these to kids!!

Ruu_Old

Scary stuff.

DublinWriter

nlgbbbblth wrote:

- Water safety: family go swimming immediately after picnic and one of them drowns. Some trips often end in tragedy...

- Deafness: guy in pub can't make out a word of what people are saying. Another one showed a drummer going deaf.

- Safety belts: Tim has a new car. Fiat 131. But has tremendous difficulty in putting on the safety belt.

- Industrial accident: Guy overloads a plug and gets fried. His friend runs in and touchs him. Bad move.

The funny thing is, I'm 37 now and being scared sh*tless by those ads as a kid really did teach me life lessons. It's only now when you list them out that I realise how programmed I am as an adult by them!

For example, I still freak out when I see people eating before swimming, I played drums for 25 years and always used in-ear protection, I always feel a guilty tinge about putting too much through a plug-board and I instinctively know never to touch a person who's been electrocuted (now I realise where I learned that from).

I'm also very careful about crossing the street (Safe Cross Code with Judge from Wanderly Wagon).

I'm sure there are others, but kids today just don't get their heads messed with like we used to!

jb91

-

Dudess

Man, that's haunting stuff! As I was watching it, I felt it was a little long-winded but I realise the purpose of that now. The slower the build-up, the more it's likely to stay with you. Thought the symbolism of the plight of the Apache Indians was really effective.
God it's gloomy. It has that British 70s/early 80s grainy aesthetic - even the sky is constantly grey!

The poisoning bit - holy crap! :eek:

I know I posted this on a recent AH thread, but for those who didn't see it, check this out (and have a look at the related ones on the right-hand side - there's a ton of them). Possibly the most terrifying public information ads of all...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXx5Y2Fr2bk

And Dark and Lonely Water...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg6IVUvVsAs

Marksie

OMG... I was born in 1964 an dthese havbe been loicked away in my memory for years... they are bringing it back. Look for dave prowse as the green cross man.

Dark and lonely water STILL frightens me. Bbut i remember laughing at teh lifeguard one

oh and this is dave, dave never learned to swim and consequently never got laid. I can swim a mile non-stop girls lol

and charlie and the cat tat got th fish, i always wondered why they didnt do one about teh dangers of eating too quickjly (cue the cat in a coffin)
Damn your eyes dudess this is taking me back alright

stovelid

On the topic of the pylon safety films, check out the song 'Nuclear Substation'... by these guys.

Even better than one of the original ads!

Dudess

stovelid, that's absolutely class! Also, I kept meaning to thank you for posting the Donald Pleasance ad earlier. It's actually no longer accessible so it's posted again.

FatherTed

Oh the memories! One I dont think that has been mentioned here yet is with this tough looking dude in a black leather jack going on about how he and his friends used to go out on every Saturday night with a flaggin of cider and get locked. But now he's all fine cos he doesnt do it any more.

And the other traffic one about how this young driver will knock down a kid running across the road because he didnt see her as there was a car blocking his view....ah but no worries, this older fella who has more driving experience, in the same scenario is able to see the kid's legs under the same blocking car and doesnt hit her.

stovelid

Dudess wrote:

stovelid, that's absolutely class! Also, I kept meaning to thank you for posting the Donald Pleasance ad earlier. It's actually no longer accessible so it's posted again.

Ta Dudess. Watched it again. The gear on the kids is worthy of a separate ATR thread

kelle

trout wrote:

i have a dim memory of a public service-y ad which featured a woman holding a sponge, and every time she squeezed the sponge you would hear a sick baby cough ... longer and longer squeezes for longer and more rattly coughs as the camera zoomed in ... i think the sponge got darker and more diseased looking each time ... i guess it was to make you immunise your kids against whooping cough

that ad gave me the creeps ... would have been the mid 70's ... no-one else seems to remember it though, so I'm starting to doubt my sanity.

I think the woman holding the sponge was the same lady in the nighty ad ... and she was a famous theatre actress ... Anna Maughan or similar ??

I guess that ad came out because less babies were receiving the whooping cough vaccine, due to a scare about brain damage resulting from it. Yes, I remember that ad, too.

Firetrap

There was another drowning ad back in the 70s as well apart from the grandad one and the toddler. It was a kid who was playing around a barrel filled with water in a farmyard. The ad ended with ominous lookin' splashes on the wall and on the barrel.

Then there were the ones to do with road safety. There was one where a lad goes to school on his bike and the voiceover starts "So...you're off to school on your bike". By the end, he's broken every rule in the book, has been chased by his mates and falls off his bike and gets given out to by an irate motorist who tells him that he'll get killed if he keeps cycling like that.

Also, there was Micheálangelo(sic) the guy who painted the yellow junction boxes on the roads. I can't remember this ad too clearly but I assume Irish drivers were as rubbish then at dealing with those yellow boxes as they are now.

Degsy

stovelid wrote:

Dudess, I think I found the Donald Pleasance ad on YouTube

That would have terrified me as a kid. :eek:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=6NY5cX0d4_g
Here it is,although its been tarted up

FatherTed

Firetrap wrote:

There was another drowning ad back in the 70s as well apart from the grandad one and the toddler. It was a kid who was playing around a barrel filled with water in a farmyard. The ad ended with ominous lookin' splashes on the wall and on the barrel.

Then there were the ones to do with road safety. There was one where a lad goes to school on his bike and the voiceover starts "So...you're off to school on your bike". By the end, he's broken every rule in the book, has been chased by his mates and falls off his bike and gets given out to by an irate motorist who tells him that he'll get killed if he keeps cycling like that.

Also, there was Micheálangelo(sic) the guy who painted the yellow junction boxes on the roads. I can't remember this ad too clearly but I assume Irish drivers were as rubbish then at dealing with those yellow boxes as they are now.

Wasnt it Mike Murphy who did the "So you're off to school on your bike" ad?

horgan_p

" john , did you put the cat out "


fire safety as from god knows when.

Degsy

"Timmmeeee"
*smashed milkbottles*
Dunno how anybody could get creamed by a milkfloat anyway.

Then there was the guy with the huge flairs who tried to get a frisbee out of an electric substation..there was a big flash and his flares exploded!

Dudess

horgan_p wrote:

" john , did you put the cat out "


fire safety as from god knows when.

Early to mid eighties I think.

Firetrap

FatherTed wrote:

Wasnt it Mike Murphy who did the "So you're off to school on your bike" ad?

Yes I think so.

There were also two ads with the same actor in them. In one, he was a cyclist going on about how little consideration motorists gave to cyclists. In the other, he was a motorist going on about cyclists not obeying the rules of the road.

Rockee

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I was born in '81 so I cant remember 'Dark and Lonely Water' but Ive just seen it for the first time a few minutes ago thanks to you guys posting it on here. MY GOD!!! Now Im gonna have nightmares!!!

Can anybody remember a freaky ad to do with Schweppes in or around the mid 80s?? It involved a man turning on a light in a living room and removing a bottle of Schweppes from a fridge. There was also an ad for Trocaire that gives me the creeps right up until today. It just showed a red candle in a dark room with the sound of wind blowing in the background. Oh, the kids have it easy now

stovelid

Rockee wrote:

There was also an ad for Trocaire that gives me the creeps right up until today. It just showed a red candle in a dark room with the sound of wind blowing in the background. Oh, the kids have it easy now

I vaguely remember this (?)

Did the ad have a candle burning in darkness, a voice-over and snippets of sounds like war, shouting and guns while the candle gutters and eventually burns out?


Or am I confusing it with something else?

Rockee

stovelid wrote:

I vaguely remember this (?)

Did the ad have a candle burning in darkness, a voice-over and snippets of sounds like war, shouting and guns while the candle gutters and eventually burns out?


Or am I confusing it with something else?

I think I remember that one too! I think the ad you mention was the Trocaire ad for the year after. Its a shame theres not a huge amount of Irish ads from the 80s on Youtube.

Dudess

Firetrap wrote:

Yes I think so.

There were also two ads with the same actor in them. In one, he was a cyclist going on about how little consideration motorists gave to cyclists. In the other, he was a motorist going on about cyclists not obeying the rules of the road.

I remember that. I thought he said he was a professional cyclist so I presumed it was Sean Kelly or Stephen Roche (for some reason I wouldn't have really known what they looked like - probably because all men with dark hair look the same to a small girl).

It was only on British television so hundreds of thousands of Irish kids were spared! It was recently included in Channel 4's 100 Scariest Moments (no doubt repeated in Halloween - only a few weeks away).

Davedubh

trout wrote: »

i have a dim memory of a public service-y ad which featured a woman holding a sponge, and every time she squeezed the sponge you would hear a sick baby cough ... longer and longer squeezes for longer and more rattly coughs as the camera zoomed in ... i think the sponge got darker and more diseased looking each time ... i guess it was to make you immunise your kids against whooping cough

that ad gave me the creeps ... would have been the mid 70's ... no-one else seems to remember it though, so I'm starting to doubt my sanity.

I think the woman holding the sponge was the same lady in the nighty ad ... and she was a famous theatre actress ... Anna Maughan or similar ??

Id completly forgotton that sponge ad till now.It was pretty creepy.