Is an image of a severed ear on the floor shocking in this day and age? Is cartoon violence really the way to hammer the importance of workplace safety to young people??
The Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario, Canada thinks so. They recently unveiled their 2007 young worker safety campaign which is supposed to be shocking and amusing - at the same time!
Before the ads were officially unveiled last week, WSIB chairman Steve Mahoney warned that "some adults may find these ads a bit too graphic." The ads have already been pulled from Guelph Transit buses after a woman complained about their "very graphic" nature.
While they are graphic, the message is lost in the lame attempt at humor. One poster shows a young worker with a large metal spike going through his head who's more concerned about where the party’s at than the excruciating pain he must be in. (As if anyone could even survive such a terrible mishap!)
The video clips on Prevent-It.ca (go to "Eye Candy") trivialize accidents even more. One clip shows a young man getting his hand chopped off in a deli meat shaving machine while an uncaring boss fails to notice even as his employee passes out.
I half expected to hear Beavis and Butthead guffawing in the background!... In fact, the WSIB ad campaign was created by J.J. Sedelmaier Productions, the same company that animated several first-season episodes of Beavis and Butthead!
I don’t think the light-hearted approach is the way to go here. Anyone who has seen a Quentin Tarantino movie (virtually ALL of today's young people) is no longer shocked at the site of an ear on the floor!
A recent youth-oriented site that really hits the mark is www.notworthit.ca with its shopping theme (how better to reach teens of both genders!!) The Not Worth It site, coming out of Nova Scotia, Canada, combines an interactive format and a light touch of humor with stark facts on injuries and real-life teens with serious mutiliations caused by jobs (girl with a missing eye; guy with am arm severed at the shoulder).
Teens creating their own safety videos
Even teenagers themselves get the seriousness of this topic, if the three top teen-produced Workplace Safety Video winners are any indication (in the 2007 competition held by WSIB). The Gold medal went to a video showing an industrial workplace and all the hazards it poses. The silver medalist chose to compare a welder's destroyed eyes to a pair of jeans that can be sewn and a vase that can be glued back together. And the broze went for a minimalist video of a teen girl on crutches. All three videos are currently being shown in Ontario movie theaters.
Beavis and Butthead wouldn't likely be impressed by the somber and touching vignettes, but most everyone else should feel a shiver go down their spine.
Teenagers aren’t stupid, so I don’t think an advertising campaign that talks down to them is the way to go.
Real-life tragedy trumps cartoonish violence any day.
