does anyone remember "She survived. You drowned", another grim one about drowning in which this stupid girl falls into a river, this guy ineffectually tries to save her only to drown himself while the little witch makes it to safety? It was very sadface.
But I remember some more enjoyable films... like the one about how you should keep over to the left on country bends, in which this country and western band drove around in an open topped car singing about how you should keep over to the left on country bends.
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Friday, 22 June 2007 12:14 (seventeen years ago) link
here in Ireland we had our own public information films, which people of a certain age will remember with fondness... notably the "oh me achin' back" one about how it is a good idea to lift things sensibly.
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Friday, 22 June 2007 12:15 (seventeen years ago) link
But I remember some more enjoyable films...
Oh there's hundreds of those but this thread is for THE HORROR
― Tom D., Friday, 22 June 2007 12:20 (seventeen years ago) link
I am clearly the only person who noticed that the main kid from "Apaches" was named Daniel Perry.
― HI DERE, Friday, 22 June 2007 12:22 (seventeen years ago) link
Excuse me sir, if I inquire, but isn't that your house on fire? Well maybe not, but if it were, I mean, suppose fire did occur? What would you do? How would you act to keep your family intact? <can't remember the next bit> If in there you start to choke, lie on the floor where there's less smoke or lean out of the window where there's likely to be cleaner air. But if it gets too bad to stay, your last resort - a getaway. Do all you can to break your fall with cushions, mattresses and all, then lower yourself gently towards the ground for choice, where soft earth can be found. <I think there are a couple of lines in here I can't remember> These rules could save your life, so heed them! Although we hope you'll never need them.
― aldo, Friday, 22 June 2007 12:23 (seventeen years ago) link
*shudder*
― Tom D., Friday, 22 June 2007 12:24 (seventeen years ago) link
Is Apaches the shite-pit-pie-crust-ain't-as-strong-as-it-looks one?
― NickB, Friday, 22 June 2007 12:35 (seventeen years ago) link
It's more the tractor-tires-are-heavy, fences-around-shit-pits-are-slippery, drinking-stuff-from-barn-bottles-is-bad, iron-fences-are-heavy, tractors-like-to-roll-off-the-road one.
― HI DERE, Friday, 22 June 2007 12:39 (seventeen years ago) link
Oh, that one
― Tom D., Friday, 22 June 2007 12:40 (seventeen years ago) link
OMG the tractor one - that is some real Sopranos shit right there.
― milo z, Friday, 22 June 2007 12:47 (seventeen years ago) link
dying in a pool of cow shit: worst death ever OR worst. death. ever.
― milo z, Friday, 22 June 2007 12:49 (seventeen years ago) link
Is that the one about single track roads? I drove Mister M up the wall singing that song when we drove around Pembrokeshire a couple of years ago. There I was, flashing my flasher, putting on my brakes, and pulling right in to that passing space, all the while thanking my lucky stars that I was on holiday.
― accentmonkey, Friday, 22 June 2007 13:05 (seventeen years ago) link
"never go parking in a passing place/someone might need that yard of space"
― Pashmina, Friday, 22 June 2007 13:37 (seventeen years ago) link
Before I click on the links, are these for real (4REAL!)?
Absolutely, you can even enjoy them on dvd.
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51K5S1ZEB5L._SS500_.jpg
― Billy Dods, Friday, 22 June 2007 13:43 (seventeen years ago) link
But I bet they don't have the horrible ones on there!
― Tom D., Friday, 22 June 2007 13:44 (seventeen years ago) link
Just watched the dark and lonely water, still seems as terrifying as when I saw it 30+ years ago.
Some people seem to miss the point though.
steerpike66 (3 days ago) Marked as spam Lovely. Such a blast from the past; kids today never get the chance to be menaced by Donald Pleasance because they're all inside playing on their Wii. or on stupid fucking 'play-dates' organized by control-freak parents.
― Billy Dods, Friday, 22 June 2007 13:47 (seventeen years ago) link
I'm intrigued as to what 'Splink' presented by Jon Pertwee might be.
― chap, Friday, 22 June 2007 13:50 (seventeen years ago) link
Road safety, innit
― Tom D., Friday, 22 June 2007 13:50 (seventeen years ago) link
Don't splink and drive and all that.
― NickB, Friday, 22 June 2007 13:51 (seventeen years ago) link
I remember one called 'Bobby' or 'Billy' about some guy who played on a railway line and got electrocuted (but didn't die); anyone else see that one?
― Just got offed, Friday, 22 June 2007 13:55 (seventeen years ago) link
These are fantastic (and while I can see the horror for a kid watching them as an adult they are really funny.) As I said to my friend when I emailed her the "Apache" link it's like a freaky cross between 7UP, Final Destination and All Creatures Great & Small! And the little dedication at the end is makes me think of the Afterword to A Scanner Darkly!
― Alex in SF, Friday, 22 June 2007 13:59 (seventeen years ago) link
The scrolling list of kids killed by farms at the end was really WOAH because the first batch of names looked like they were involved in the same incident and when they got to the "a bazillion children were murdered by tractors" part I went "OH COME THE FUCK ON" before I stopped being a dumbass.
Also WTF at the kid in the dedication who blew up on a farm.
― HI DERE, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:16 (seventeen years ago) link
When I look at them now, I can't help thinking that they were surely just a scheme for getting work for the people who made them--a way of spending government money on the film industry film without the broke-ass public going berserk about it.
But perhaps I'm overthinking it.
― accentmonkey, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:16 (seventeen years ago) link
Aaaaaaargghh, I wish I could see this!
― Tom D., Friday, 22 June 2007 14:17 (seventeen years ago) link
How does the penultimate kid die? He seems to jump into a puddle and then the scene cuts to a tractor. How does that work?
Also, drowning in shit = ;_;
― Just got offed, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:20 (seventeen years ago) link
(SPOILER alert, obv.)
And the little dedication at the end is makes me think of the Afterword to A Scanner Darkly!
Wow, I never thought of that! You're right!
― Pashmina, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:22 (seventeen years ago) link
-- Billy Dods, Friday, 22 June 2007 13:47 (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
I read that one as well. I figured the reason why the parents are control freaks is that they saw all these films when they were children.
― Pashmina, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:24 (seventeen years ago) link
don't live before you've died etc etc etc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWb5UhdMHvw&NR=1
― Just got offed, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:25 (seventeen years ago) link
*die before you've lived even
― Just got offed, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:26 (seventeen years ago) link
things are so much better, now we terrorize children in person
Teachers stage fake gunman attack on sixth-graders aka what the hell is wrong with people
in the future we'll just pick a few kids off to teach the others a lesson
― Edward III, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:26 (seventeen years ago) link
SPOILERS
kid 1: run over by tractor kid 2: drowns in shit kid 3: drinks poison kid 4: crushed by gate kid 5: rides tractor off a cliff kid 6: still alive, is all sadface at the wake
― HI DERE, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:33 (seventeen years ago) link
there's an interesting psychological component to adults who deal with their fear of mortality by traumatizing children. cruelty beneath a veil of saintly protective benevolence.
my favorites were the drug abuse ones they showed us in grade school - grimy clips of seedy people vomiting in stairwells and police photos of o.d. victims.
― Edward III, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:34 (seventeen years ago) link
We were shown photos of someone who had gone so OTT in their glue-sniffing that they'd covered their face entirely in glue, blocking all their breathing passages, and in desperation had attempted to perform an impromptu tracheotomy upon themselves using only their NAILS.
It's still quite possibly the most sobering thing I've ever seen.
― Just got offed, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:36 (seventeen years ago) link
Oh balls to that, glue sniffing is much more fun that, spoilsports
― Tom D., Friday, 22 June 2007 14:37 (seventeen years ago) link
Slightly dissapointed that no-one from the US has mentioned RED ASPHALT and it's ilk yet, apart from the (v funny) simpsons spoof on drivers ed films that tracer posted. We NEVER got shown anything that heavy.
― Pashmina, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:40 (seventeen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyG6NIgpzBM&NR=1
― Just got offed, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:41 (seventeen years ago) link
It's still quite possibly the most sobering thing I've ever seen./
YSI?
― onimo, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:42 (seventeen years ago) link
There was this horrifying prom-based one they showed to our driver's ed class that was basically a completely normal "we're going to the prom!" shitty short right up until the ginormous drunk driving accident.
― HI DERE, Friday, 22 June 2007 14:56 (seventeen years ago) link
by the way Dubliners, I have a DVD of public information films if anyone wants to become too terrified to do anything.
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Friday, 22 June 2007 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link
Dan there are current, snazzy public service ads in the UK that use that same formula to very chastening effect.
my junior-high health class was shown slides of venereal warts, etc. that freaked us all right out. Our teacher ("Coach K") said that if anyone laughed, or even tittered, we would get sent straight to the principal's office. (None of us felt like laughing though.)
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 22 June 2007 15:57 (seventeen years ago) link
We watched a documentary on herpes that included extreme close-ups of herpes breakouts. It was beyond gross.
― HI DERE, Friday, 22 June 2007 15:59 (seventeen years ago) link
"veal and ham pie...my favourite"
― J0hn D., Friday, 22 June 2007 15:59 (seventeen years ago) link
when I was a senior in high school, we got a live action version of these - they set up a crashed car, dead dummies, 'blood' all over the ground, brought in EMTs and a CareFlight helicopter, played sound effects of the screeching/crashing and moans. It was awesome.
― milo z, Friday, 22 June 2007 16:01 (seventeen years ago) link
None of the VD films on youtube are as gross as I hoped.
My Mum's friend's son drowned in a slurry pit when I was small. I still remember her crying on the phone when she found out.
― Madchen, Friday, 22 June 2007 16:11 (seventeen years ago) link
Good grief.
― Pashmina, Friday, 22 June 2007 16:21 (seventeen years ago) link
I love the Minnesota Twins shirt on that motorbike guy.
The prom one may have been The Last Prom.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=br49e1xOwVA
― Eric H., Friday, 22 June 2007 17:09 (seventeen years ago) link
These are all really some of the best films ever made.
― Eric H., Friday, 22 June 2007 17:11 (seventeen years ago) link
Pay Attention, Britain!
Sat 29 Mar, 2:50 am - 3:30 am 40mins
To mark the 60th anniversary of the Central Office of Information, Fi Glover narrates the story of the British public information film.
Subtitles Stereo Widescreen
― koogs, Friday, 28 March 2008 15:01 (sixteen years ago) link
I remember a lecturer talking about how gross-out public information films are not that effective at changing behaviour. He was talking about when he was in the army, they made the soldiers watch an in-your-face film about the horrors of veneral disease (as they then called it). It was very shocking, he said, and they were all talking about it on the way down to the brothel.
― The New Dirty Vicar, Thursday, 23 February 2012 18:00 (twelve years ago) link
No one ever posted those Canadian "prevent it" ads?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwCyVku1HvI
― dead-trius (Eric H.), Thursday, 23 February 2012 18:03 (twelve years ago) link
They're on some other thread. I think about that one all the time.
― beachville, Thursday, 23 February 2012 18:10 (twelve years ago) link
God, this has been nagging me for a few days now. I can sort of remember an American PSA from the early 1980s, featuring a burnt-out building and narrated by a cartoon cricket. I don't know whether it was for smoking safety, lighter safety, or smoke alarms, but I feel like it had to be one of those. I've already scoped out the various Cricket Lighter commercials on youtube. Would be happy to just have confirmation that something like this existed.
― beachville, Friday, 2 March 2012 10:09 (twelve years ago) link
damn, came on this thread via the horror film poll and now i'm looking at horrible public safety ads. as if i didnt have a hard enough time falling asleep.
― Jibe, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 15:13 (twelve years ago) link
I'll repeat my request for info/confirmation on the PSA I mentioned above.
― beachville, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 15:33 (twelve years ago) link
This was always a fave - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmImMil6r3k
― BlackIronPrison, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 15:45 (twelve years ago) link
re: The Finishing Line (ps no fucking way I'm watching this tonight)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slJyhOEo-SY
― "Post-Oven" (DJP), Wednesday, 10 July 2013 04:08 (eleven years ago) link
The David Lynch anti-littering PSA is a thing of beauty, not least for the bikers' revel at 0:42...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSWv90msTUc
― one way street, Wednesday, 10 July 2013 08:09 (eleven years ago) link
on a marginally less bleak note: anyone remember "play it safe" with jimmy savile, a series of jolly little five-minute PIFs where the bejewelled funster pointed out how your house/garden/bike/etc was trying to kill you?
― grimly fiendish, Saturday, March 29, 2008 1:11 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― the SI unit of ignorance (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 10 July 2013 08:14 (eleven years ago) link
I love DL's anti-littering PSA. They need to start airing it again because I bet it's pretty effective.
― carl agatha, Wednesday, 10 July 2013 13:55 (eleven years ago) link
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfyfY7PI3pg
― Young Boys of Bernie (Tom D.), Monday, 10 August 2020 10:19 (four years ago) link
I never saw this one, despite growing up in a semi rural environment. Jill saw it when she was seven(!!!! WTF) and recalls it vividly. We watched it last night, and it is the most grim, macabre shit I think I have ever seen. We were both really upset and depressed after watching it. Unbelievable that this was shown to young children:
What was this? Such a tantalising description for a bunch of dead links!
― chap, Monday, 10 August 2020 10:32 (four years ago) link
I assume it's Apaches, which sees kids die in a variety of farmyard accidents over the course of a week - the one everyone remembers is drowning in a slurry pit, but also crushed by a gate, run over by a tractor trailer, drank poison and crashes a tractor after accidentally letting the hand brake off. Ends with a list of children that died in farm accidents that year.
― Mud... jam... failure (aldo), Monday, 10 August 2020 10:39 (four years ago) link
That's the way to do it, scare the living shit out of the little baskets.
― Young Boys of Bernie (Tom D.), Monday, 10 August 2020 10:40 (four years ago) link
Grown Ups and Road Sense (it was dad in our new car, above) is one of my favourites and that I remember best*. "You'll ruin your eyes!"
* This is not true, I can still recite all of the Joe & Petunia films, remember Mike who swims like a fish (but looks like a monkey) and "excuse me sir, if I inquire, but isn't that your house on fire?" - as it turns out I said on here 15 years ago.
― Mud... jam... failure (aldo), Monday, 10 August 2020 10:46 (four years ago) link
I notice some querying of SPLINK! earlier, I once offered a ton of bonus points in a pub quiz (enough to win) to anyone who could come up with any of the rules of the acronym.
― Mud... jam... failure (aldo), Monday, 10 August 2020 10:50 (four years ago) link