International Workplace Safety Adverts

Unlike Britain which has a strong tradition of public safety adverts but not workplace safety adverts, Canada and the USA makes a strong case for the reasons behind workplace safety legislation and controls.

Whilst many of these adverts are gory and shocking -remember it's all fake and they are all actors.

We recently asked a group of employees this question : "Do you think there is too much Health and Safety in the UK?" - the results were illuminating.


Question :
I think there is too much Health and Safety in the UK           91%
I think it is about right                                                           9%
I think there is too little Health and Safety in the UK           0%
I don't know                                                                         0%

We think that given nearly all media coverage of workplace Health and Safety in the Press, on TV and Ministerial Press Statements has been negative about Health and Safety the above results are not as surprising as many would feel.

Yet when we discussed things further with group many had completely different attitudes towards other types of Safety provision. Road Safety, First Aid, Airline Safety and Fire Safety were all considered as more important than workplace safety.

Why was this? - could the successful Safety Campaigns have something to do with it? - When the group was asked to recall past safety campaigns - not one Workplace Safety campaign was recollected from the past 40 years , while many could recall Road Safety campaigns such as Clunk Click, the Green Cross Code Man, Speed Kills, Don't Drink and Drive from as far back as 1971.

The Health and Safety Executive has not spent a significant part of it's budget on Television Advertising to run a Workplace Safety campaign to underline the importance of workplace safety and why safety law exists.

In other countries, such as Canada and the United States they do make and screen TV ads in campaigns supporting health and safety with great effect.

We showed the group 1 advert from the US and 1 from Canada and asked the same question

Question :
I think there is too much Health and Safety in the UK           0%
I think it is about right                                                           91%
I think there is too little Health and Safety in the UK            9%
I don't know                                                                         0%

A dramatic difference and a 100% change of attitude about Health and Safety in the UK.
 

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Australia

Don't drive distracted (TAC)

Canada

The Chef (2007 WSIB)

Workplace Accident (WSIB)

Family Guy (WSIB)

New Zealand

 Water Safety (1993)

USA

Journey to Safety Excellence (NSC)

Public Information Vacuum - Then and Now

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Workplace Safety in the UK suffers from an absence of TV advertising to promote the importance of why workplace Safety matters. This wasn't always the case in the UK, during the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's Public Information Films produced by the film unit of the Central Office of Information did cover some workplace safety issues as well as comprehensively raising awareness of public safety issues surrounding Road Safety, Fire Safety, Safety risks to children and public health issues.

In  other countries - modern public information commercials have successfully tackled workplace safety issues and we put links to these here.

Many of the public information films of this period were so menacing they drove the message home and some still give us nightmares 40 years on, but most were effective at the time. There are literally hundreds of these short films which guided the public yet because of governmental departmental juristiction workplace safety was never covered.

UK Road Safety
Clunk Click (1966)

Green Cross Code 1(1975)

Green Cross Code 2 (1975)

Green Cross Code 3 (1975)

Splink John Pertwee (1976)

Staying Alive Hedgehogs (2001)

UK Fire Safety

Fire Kills: Make your Plan (1990's)

Chip Pans (1990's)  

Child Safety
Charlie Says Falling into Water (1973)

Lonely Water (1973)

Home Safety

The Fatal Floor (1974) 

This was a home safety film but in 30 seconds makes a point valid to many commonplace and preventable workplace slips, trips and falls. With a shift away from carpets toward dangerously slippery solid floors in workplaces, ROSPA reported a 400% increase in people falling foul of polished floors from 2,900 to 12,300 between 1998-2004.

Public Health

AIDS Don't Die of Ignorance (1987)