Bring back public information films!

[Glitterbiscuits]

I think we seriously need a return of basic common sense guidance in the UK — more help, less confusion, and less reliance on unreliable social media posts.

It feels like proper public information films have basically disappeared. The most recent one I can even remember is the CPR campaign with Vinnie Jones, teaching chest compressions to the tune of Staying Alive.

Maybe the big soap operas could even cover some of these issues, because people genuinely don’t know things they should know. For example, I’ve met several people who have no idea we should be taking vitamin D supplements over winter in the UK.
I’ve sat in concerts with people still wearing their hats!
I honestly think this reluctance to be seen as a “nanny state” isn’t helping anyone.
We could easily have public information films covering things like:
Washing your hands! It’s incredible to think people needed to be told this during COVID.
Avoiding online scams
Bank security and spotting fake texts
Basic food hygiene
Everyday courtesy (letting people off the train before you push on, not blocking doorways, etc.)
Keep Britain Tidy-style campaigns

Not preachy. Just practical. A bit of guidance would make daily life better for everyone.

Surely it’s the job of parents to teach basic manners/rules of society?

Although I remember thinking they totally misread the room on the heroin one. So many girls wanted to look like the girl in the advert - emaciated and edgy. They should have chosen someone less cool-looking.

True, but what if they don't?

I love the idea of more public info films. We are a society. We need to cohere and share a set of standards for manners, safety, good health etc.

I remember loving the first This Girl Can ads. They were similar in otne to the old public info ads. Straightforward and inspiring change for the better. I was very overweight at the time and they really did help me to stop caring what I looked like and feeling proud that I was getting active anyway.

Yes, the impact would be rather lost with detailed trigger warnings and spoilers, and many folk just fast forwarding through them whenever possible.

In the 70s and 80s, you'd be sitting at home in front of the TV and see a nice little scene that you assumed was going to be a normal advert for a product or service; but then it would end in tragedy and make you gasp and even scream. Nowadays, you'd have all of the comments saying things like "Wow! 00:28!" with a link to click straight to that point, as well as somebody making a 2-hour YouTube mash-up of the scary bit repeated over and over again with an added high-energy dance soundtrack and a flippant meme-style comment.

Or the jagged broken lemonade bottle in the sand at the beach..that aye made me wince.

They need public information films for small (usually) women with large suitcases who insist on taking them down the escalator rather than lift and then STOP right at the bottom to get their bearings, causing near-pile-ups..

Yeah I remember the COI. I think I knew someone who worked there. It sounded like as much fun as a government department could be. Probably why it closed.

The adverts about fires in the 80s absolutely terrified me. There was one with a tank bursting into a big room and a little girl running away. One with a couch bursting into flames. The ones about smoking in bed and burning to a cinder.

And the AIDS one with the tombstone. Cue ten million kids all worriedly asking their parents 'I'm not going to die of AIDS am I?' and the parents replying 'of course not dear' without any context of how they could actually catch it. Presumably that would be one can of worms too many.

They were at their best in the 1970s.
The attached railway safety film was considered so shocking it was wirhdrawn after two years.

Be warned - they wpuldn't make safety films lije this now 😲
player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-finishing-line-1977-online

I love the idea of government information films about taking your hat off at the theatre! They could go full-on retro with "Women! Don't be a shameful slattern - scrub that doorstep until it shines, every day!!"

That one a few years back, telling people who'd broken down on the motorway to try to get over to the hard shoulder as you're losing power if possible rather than just stopping resolutely in the fast lane, did seem a bit "Really?!" though.

I don't know if it's technically the government, or some kind of quango/sponsored official body, but that Hypno-Cat advert telling you to recycle your electricals is an absolute bop and thoroughly unignorable. The only thing is that we changed the lyrics once, when in a silly mood, and now, every time, we sing "Recycle your electricals, recycle your electricals; don't eat your electricals - or we'll kick you in the testicles!"

There were some horrible farming ones, the grain silo stayed with me for decades!

They seemed to be on on. Sunday morning. I used to go down and put the telly on and play quietly until my parents slept off their hangover, and I’d do jig saws and watch Ap Khar Hac or whatever it was called. And Open Univeristy programs which I’d then re-enact to my delighted squinting mum and dad.

A how not to be a cunt campaign would be an eye opener for a lot of people at the moment

Fabulous!

I liked the one about the undercooked Christmas turkey running in and jumping on the tree, complete with big spoddy glasses.

That should be a new government department. Who would work there though?

The Central Office of Information used to do them but was shut by the Coalition in 2010.

They were a QUANGO I think.

You can’t wear hats in the British legion clubs ! They will tell you to take them off. It’s a respect thing.

How not to be rude department!
That’s a big Quango !

I also remember that 'Talk to Frank' advert for people who were thinking about starting to take drugs (and presumably wanting to persuade them not to).

Unfortunately, it coincided with Shameless on TV - with Frank Gallagher as the pathetic, drug-dealing main character - and there were all of the jokes showing a photo of his face and the legend "Want to know about drugs? Talk to Frank!"

I've long wished that every month the Minister for Education, whoever it is, would come on TV and say, "If you are bringing up a child, you can make a lot of difference to the child's readiness to read at age 5 by talking to them and singing and reading to them from the beginning of their lives, even when they're still in the womb."
I doubt if that message would have been necessary 80 years ago but I think it needs saying nowadays.

And please don't teach your child to write her/his name all in capital letters.

Yes yes yes yes @Glitterbiscuits

One of my pastimes is watching retro adverts and PIFs on YouTube.

I've even got the Charley Says DVDs.

I do remember thinking the PIFs during the COVID pandemic were a bit wishy washy compared to the AIDS and heroin warning adverts in the 80s.

What is he doing with those candle sticks
Put a rug on a polished floor
You be as well set a mantrap.😁

I remember the skin care by heroin posters ?

Nobody watches live TV so when would they play? I agree that people need a solid way of being informed of recommendations but there’s no one channel that works like that anymore. People don’t even watch the news now.

There is nutrition public guidance and the Change4Life PHE campaign was one…. It had very little effect because the public don’t care. Those who do are already informed and those who don’t won’t take the advice. And many of those in between think they know better.