Graphic PSA's and New Ways to Use Reality in Making a Difference

Consider more graphic public service announcements in Britain to be another example of how far ahead the UK is from America and the rest of the world. There just isn't any end to my saying in articles how Britain influences us, at least in the world of entertainment. But nobody would have imagined that the influences of Shakespeare and British TV comedies could have evolved into the art of making public service announcements more compelling. America took notice when Britain recently created a new graphic PSA showing what happens when teens text too much while driving a car. In it, we see four teenage girls who don't pay attention to the road and a horrific creation of a car accident to show the ghastly consequences.

The immediate response in America was one of our patented shock and awe reactions with the kneejerk thought graphic images of that kind are too much to make a point in mainstream media. Yet when we live in a time when most of the world's kids (and adults) don't pay attention to kinder and gentler PSA's or many other warnings, it only leaves room to show graphic reality in order to scare people into submission of doing the right thing.

Of course, this could lead to a slippery slope eventually in Britain or if America copies Britain for an uncountable time. It may already be too late for those long ago accepting the most graphic of images without batting an eye. Or, it may be the new way to educate a new generation when done carefully.

Shifting things that have stayed the same for years in order to make a stronger point or to reach inattentive children is obviously a reality of the 21^st century so far. The decision to shift kids programming toward the attention-deficit disorder crowd more or less started before the 21^st century. And when it came to PSA's for kids, the decision to do any at all during kids programming went by the wayside once they apparently took up too much time that sponsors could use to promote their unhealthy wares. I'll always be grateful for being able to enjoy the peek of Saturday morning kids programming in the 70's and 80's when you could see some of the best and most creative PSA's ever done.

Generation X saw them all, from animated and live-action 60-second messages telling us to eat healthy food, don't pollute or steal, stay away from fallen power lines, etc. And, yes, we later received the "Just Say No!" campaign to stay away from drugs. All of these, though, were done benignly, if still in creative ways that didn't make us ignore them. But once they started getting ridiculed by a new generation, they merely became museum pieces. Now they're found uploaded on Youtube where my generation leaves nostalgic comments noting how much we miss them or saying how contrived they appear today.

Not that some PSA's haven't continued in all media, though most of them in America are still done in ways that don't even get a child to lift their head up to watch, let alone set an example.

Then came the era of more violent entertainment that only made the potential to teach kids not to do something more of a challenge.
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I've always held to the concept that the only way for kids to stop doing something today is to utilize a form of virtual reality to experience a virtual pain in its severest form. Only then will it shake up kids desensitized in the last twenty years to violent media they've assimilated to the point of being a natural fabric of life. Of course, we don't have those tools available yet and why recreating violent circumstances is the only way to get anybody to pay attention. It's disconcerting that America didn't go there first before Britain figured it out and created one of the most graphic public service announcements ever made to get teens to stop texting while driving.

You can count on America soon copying Britain yet again on creating a more compelling PSA--with loads of protest before and after such a thing airs. Or, we may be looking at reality in the face: Nothing is too shocking anymore. I saw evidence of that myself more than a decade ago already when seeing the ultimate movie in showing the realities of war ("Saving Private Ryan") and noticing teens around me watching it like a video game rather than with stunned reverence.

Although there may be one key to making graphic PSA's more haunting for a desensitized generation. Just as Shakespeare used the device of ghosts and witches in some of his plays to scare the hell out of his audience, so too did his homeland in the 21^st century pick up on the idea of showing the worst possible scenario to the particular PSA demographic.

Although it's a challenging thing to grapple with for many, seeing the worst possible outcome for kids in a PSA targeted toward that age group still hits between the eyes. It's quite different from a teenager seeing young to middle-age men being killed in WWII or even teens or 20-somethings being tortured to death by a sadistic killer (e.g. "Saw"). When kids see the bloody faces of death from a circumstance familiar to them through actors who look hauntingly like their peers, it seems to be the only thing that garners mouth-agape attention.

It'll be interesting to see how the PSA in Britain worked on the kids there. Once the process comes to the States, look for an Americanized one on texting consequences, along with a graphic recreation of a teen dying from a drug overdose or dying in a hospital bed from lung cancer after smoking. The only barrier to it working effectively is giving a parental warning at the beginning of the PSA so overly sensitive parents or kids can turn away if they so choose.

The element of violent surprise in the PSA on TV, at the movies or in cyberspace is the likely future of this business until we reach virtual reality where someone can experience real horrific pain to wise up.

Source:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/25/eveningnews/main5265303.shtml