Protect and Survive - Funny or Scary?

JupiterKid

Back in the early 1980s the UK government had a series of public service adverts that were just a little bit different from the public safety adverts that were all the rage back then.

Instead of telling kiddies not to swim near waterfalls, climb electricity pylons or get into cars with strangers, it was a campaign called Protect & Survive and was to be broadcast in the event that a nuclear war looked likely.

Link to them here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yNVMm2KpiDI#!


These adverts, needless to say, these were never shown. But to do find them (with hindsight) hilarious, creepy, frightening or just plain stupid?

Guill

To do find them indeed.

Underdraft

Not funny, not really scary either. Just chilling I suppose. Like for example listening to this guy matter-of-factly telling you to wrap your dead relatives up in plastic and then bury them in the back garden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HFm1t0lq8Q

Sindri

I find them, or that is to say I found them, to be fascinating.

Sindri

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxrWz9XVvls

yermanoffthetv

I think these 2 films probably did more to educate the british population on the realities of nuclear war that any public safety ad could, in that, even if you do survive you probably wouldnt want to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQo0BQM3OlQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVq76YvTPMs

Americans had a good one too but was banned i think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGEq9aipTAo

To answer your question, yea creepy as fook but thank god we dont need them anymore (hopefully!) Nuclear war is nasty business.

Reamer Fanny

Remember iodine tablets?

LH Pathe

justryan wrote: »

Remember iodine tablets?

remember isotope soap

JupiterKid

justryan wrote: »

Remember iodine tablets?

Yes, they were supposed to protect us from a nuclear disaster, weren't they?:rolleyes:

I find the Protect and Survive adverts very chilling - they'd be more aptly named "hide and die.":(

policarp

Wash your hands, please. . .and your boots. . .
It will curb the spread of "Shot in the foot and gob disease".

policarp

justryan wrote: »

Remember iodine tablets?

Still have them.

Sharpshooter

Can't remember where I put them,tbh!

I think the BBC/PBS could do with showing Threads again. I watched it again a few weeks ago and turned on the news and there was a report on Iran's nuclear proliferation and the subsequent American freak out. Now the rest of Europe is wading in...


And yes those ads are terrifying, especially the jingle at the start.

I'd like to have it as a ringtone!

Fromthetrees

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW4s7TETtJA

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Reamer Fanny

JupiterKid wrote: »

justryan wrote: »

Remember iodine tablets?

Yes, they were supposed to protect us from a nuclear disaster, weren't they?:rolleyes:

I find the Protect and Survive adverts very chilling - they'd be more aptly named "hide and die.":(

Yup it was around the time of the World Trade Centre attacks and everyone was hysterical that Sellafield would be attacked so every household in Ireland got some iodine tablets madness

Underdraft

Fromthetrees wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW4s7TETtJA

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

A lot of people like to put forward that Duck and Cover was nothing more than propaganda to calm niave people in the face of the inevitable. However there was some merit to the action. The main idea behind it was that if you "duck and cover" you had a better chance to avoid being struck by flying debris caused by the blast (eg flying shards of glass). Also you stood a better chance by going into hiding as soon as you heard the warning sounds as opposed to doing the natural human reaction of looking around for the source of the sounds and making yourself an easy target.

previous user

Underdraft wrote: »

Not funny, not really scary either. Just chilling I suppose. Like for example listening to this guy matter-of-factly telling you to wrap your dead relatives up in plastic and then bury them in the back garden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HFm1t0lq8Q

dead eh

marcsignal

yermanoffthetv wrote: »

I think these 2 films probably did more to educate the british population on the realities of nuclear war than any public safety ad could

Quite true imo. In fact the original movie THREADS was based on was called "The War Game", made in 1965. Due to be broadcast on the BBC on the 20th anniversary of Hiroshima, it was deemed to be too horrifying for the medium of Television, and never broadcast. Full movie below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAn8KWJ26M4

marcsignal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K34FrY69cOI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ma_j6-9Wqc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJxjLRmtnTA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv-l-qxhrQo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OsbFI_K0LI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=defpSZs9eFQ

marcsignal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igiLzDsE8SU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNB5Kgn1zxQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMxhXJk87JM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzX3TdvlgFU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8agH1S-UXk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKDOZD0KQsA

marcsignal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY-hWRWi5IY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XNRtQ3MBwc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-cOE4rXtlk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXJsX8CBagI

Dudess

They were terrifying - crappy production values or not! Weren't they shelved due to being too dodgy for national morale?

"In the event of someone dying after a nuclear attack..." :eek:

Chilling...

Doc Ruby

JupiterKid wrote: »

I find the Protect and Survive adverts very chilling - they'd be more aptly named "hide and die.":(

Hahaha, yeah standard military procedure was well known among the lower ranks in the event of a nuclear attack to be "put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye".

Weird to look back and think how close the world came to that end more than once.

marcsignal

It's scary as well, the way they seemed to be aimed at 'able bodied citizens'. Whatever chance they would have had, can you imagine what would have happened to the elderly, the sick, the disabled.......??

Well illustrated in the movie 'When The Wind Blows' which I have to admit, has caused me to well up on watching it, when I think about my own elderly parents, and how they would cope under such circumstances.

Full Movie below, a Must Watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9aHT-IlkHo

cml387

You have to understand the context of the time.

The new Conservative government of Britain in 1979 ordered a review of all civil defence capabilities in the UK and found them seriously deficient.

Following the logic of deterrence (I'm not making an argument for this,just stating the reasons) in that you intend to use nuclear weapons, then you must also have a good (looking) civil defence system. If not, the enemy will doubt your resolve in using nuclear weapons because you are not preparing to defend your population.

Protect and survive was just one part of the increased offensive posture adopted by the western powers in the early eighties.

Read this entry in Wikipedia about it all could have gone badly wrong.

wendell borton

Stanislav Petrov,

On September 26, 1983 he was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early warning system when the system reported a small launch from the United States. Petrov judged that the report was a false alarm.[1] This decision may have prevented an erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its Western allies.

The false nuclear attack warning involving Stanislav Petrov, however, is cited by CIA analyst Peter Pry as "the single most dangerous incident of the early 1980s."

Thanks to stan we are all here today!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

wendell borton

Prepare for the Future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWvpTaBg0dQ

Conor108

Threads was a seriously depressing movie!

ejmaztec

The poor civilians being to told to shelter under an old door, whilst the government and all of their pals could laugh themselves silly below ground in nuclear bunkers, brilliant plan.

the purple tin

You'd be lucky if the nuclear blast killed you outright.
Any survivors in the area would have a very slow and painful death to look forward to.:(

mongoman

Fromthetrees wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW4s7TETtJA

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Now that is a very appropriate use of the rolls eyes emoticon.

marcsignal

wendell borton wrote: »

Stanislav Petrov,

Thanks to stan we are all here today!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

That was crazy !!! :eek:

I remember I had just started 6th year in secondary school at the time, and nobody knew a thing about it, until years later when the former Soviet Union collapsed. We came closer to the end that time, than we did during the Cuban missile crisis. I think Stanislav Petrov was even dishonourably discharged from the Russian Army over it, for overriding the system and stopping the launch, which seems totally insane.

Dr conrad murray

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT96sgTwmvo

Seren_

I watched those last week after someone posted one in another thread, so strange to think that it was a serious possibility. Watched half of Threads too, such a heavy going movie :eek: Couldn't watch it all.

RichieC

Funny. Was just propaganda.. Duck and cover... Lol that would help.

marcsignal

Watch full THREADS movie here*

*You may need a sleeping tablet later :eek:

Your Text Here wrote: »

I watched those last week after someone posted one in another thread, so strange to think that it was a serious possibility. Watched half of Threads too, such a heavy going movie :eek: Couldn't watch it all.

If I recall correctly, THREADS was pulled from video shop shelves in ireland, late in 1984.
I didn't get to see it again until I got it on DVD from Lazer in 2004.

Sindri

Dudess wrote: »

They were terrifying - crappy production values or not! Weren't they shelved due to being too dodgy for national morale?

"In the event of someone dying after a nuclear attack..." :eek:

Chilling...

There is something incredibly frightening about these videos. The possibility of the destruction of civilization and the world and what to do in the event of such an occurrence. Absolutely surreal and chilling. Imagine, something we take for granted just crumbling, and the siren's whining, keening, blaring, the funeral melody of the end of the world, one toneless shriek, singing, 'You have failed, humanity is lost', and creates a feeling of a deep seethed hopeless panic, that in 10 minutes, the whole world will be in flames. And the anarchy that ensues.

marcsignal

Sindri wrote: »

There is something incredibly frightening about these videos.

Sure is, and even aside from the fallout, imagine the amount of unburied bodies lying about and the disease that would spread, and the scramble for whatever little uncontaminated food that remained. The absence of medicines would make a Doctor about as useful as the next nearest survivor. Not to mention the total breakdown of society, and Law and Order as we know it.

It was frightening growing up in the 80s, watching Reagan and Chernenko facing each other off on the six o clock news every night.

Edit:

Although, the Not the Nine O Clock News crew were always making light of the situation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVGFh5bnB7I

Remember this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNtKAnW68Yc

Does anyone know where you can watch the whole thing?

marcsignal

Edz87 wrote: »

Remember this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNtKAnW68Yc

Does anyone know where you can watch the whole thing?

I had a look around, but can't find it anywhere on the web.
I would love to see that again myself. I missed the first half of the first episode when it was aired as well

johngalway

I prefer this version

and with a little muscular pressure.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2UpM8Ci_ao

Seomra Mushie

justryan wrote: »

Remember iodine tablets?

How come I remember all households receiving iodine in the 1990s?

Orando Broom

Read a book called The Dead Hand. True story of the Cold War.

JupiterKid

We should be grateful that those adverts were never broadcast. They would have frightened the hell out of a lot of people.