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Recently, I've been noticing something of an outcry over Canada's recent public information films, each concerning a gruesome work accident. As often happens, this attempt to connect a gruesome reality with the public has met with anger at the film as much as at the situation that lets the accident happen.
You may remember an anti-smoking ad a few years ago in the UK, where a man literally coughed his lungs up and had to watch them as they slithered out of the door of a greasy spoon caff. If not, it's on YouTube, and conveniently linked for you below. Bear in mind, before you press play on any of these, that we're talking about gruesome ads.
As I recall, that one was banned after about three showings. To me, that's shocking; it's a well-made bit of film that literalises a frequent complaint from smokers, and stands out for its production quality (and the punchline) as much as the shock value. The same, incidentally, goes for the dog-breath advert for mints and for Kevin the Hamster - both brilliant, both banned.
To Canada's credit, the controversial Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) ads are still airing. In each case, the person who is about to be involved in a fatal work accident introduces him- or herself, and explains the things that have been ignored and overlooked that are about to result in his or her death. The tagline is that there are no accidents; each case could have been avoided, and has responsibility attached.
The most controversial advert, judging by the level of comment directed at it, is available below. Be warned that it is unflinching in its presentation of pain and injury.
It is certainly true that the advert has made workplace safety a topic of conversation across Canada, which can only raise the profile of this important topic. The controversy is over whether the advert is too graphic in its presentation of the accident; it has been accused of giving children - and adults - nightmares, and contravening levels of taste.
One parent complained to a newspaper that her child was now following her around in the kitchen, checking for slippery grease spots like the one responsible for the injury in this film. But doesn't this seem to be evidence of the advert working, rather than the mental injury the mother claimed it to be?
If this were the only reason, I'd certainly come down on the side of showing the ads anyway. I remember being petrified by The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water, and while it might have made me a temporary nightmare for my parents, it's probably due in part to this public information film that I was one of the sensible children that Donald Pleasance had no power over.
More worrying criticism is the idea of this desensitizing viewers, so that future adverts would need to show greater pain and injury to get their messages across. Sadly, a sequence of sniggering adolescents cheering the violence in the YouTube comment stream would seem to support this, unless this is a boyish cover to hide how affected they really are.
Another criticism levelled, almost everywhere this video is shown, is that the adverts are part of a campaign to shift blame for the accidents onto the sufferer, rather than the company. This accusation often appears in similarly-worded ways, suggesting there is a rival campaign running through the internet that is against these adverts on a political front, not an aesthetic one.
Actually, both victims are careful to show that one of the problems is their responsibility, and one is the company's, which would seem to be arguing that the blame could fall on either side, as much as a two-minute film can.
Here, of course, we believe very much in the right of someone who has been involved in a work accident to make a compensation claim. If these adverts help to increase safety, reduce injury, and encourage deserving claimants to seek compensation, then any complaints are only about detail, and the films deserve to be shown.
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