Prevent it!

[Fittisize]

Lately a series of public service announcements have been finding their way on Canadian airwaves. They deal with safety in the workplace and preventing accidents. A noble cause indeed, but I'm not sure I like the direction the government has taken with these PSAs. Below is my initial reaction over MSN to the first one I ever saw. It aired after an Oilers game:

11/17/2007 10:17:00 PM Dave Jeff || DUDE
11/17/2007 10:17:02 PM Dave Jeff || WHAT THE FUCK
11/17/2007 10:17:04 PM Dave Jeff || THAT COMMERCIAL
11/17/2007 10:17:06 PM Dave Jeff || DID YOU SEE THAT SHIT?!?!
11/17/2007 10:17:11 PM Dave Jeff || OH
11/17/2007 10:17:12 PM Dave Jeff || MY
11/17/2007 10:17:13 PM Dave Jeff || FUCKING
11/17/2007 10:17:13 PM Dave Jeff || GOD
11/17/2007 10:17:33 PM Jeff || Dave no but we're probably on different cbc channels
11/17/2007 10:17:34 PM Jeff || Dave but LET ME GUESS
11/17/2007 10:17:38 PM Jeff || Dave I THINK I KNOW WHICH IT IS
11/17/2007 10:17:47 PM Jeff || Dave is it that fuckign commercial where that bitch burns herself with grease?????
11/17/2007 10:17:51 PM Dave Jeff || Yeah!
11/17/2007 10:17:53 PM Jeff || Dave hahah
11/17/2007 10:17:56 PM Jeff || Dave fuck i can't watch that shit
11/17/2007 10:18:06 PM Jeff || Dave i saw it for the first time last weekend on the oilers/flames game
11/17/2007 10:18:18 PM Jeff || Dave and my dad and i were like... what.. the fuck???????/
11/17/2007 10:18:18 PM Dave Jeff || I saw it for the first time now and I'm gonna have fucking nightmares
11/17/2007 10:18:24 PM Jeff || Dave i was like
11/17/2007 10:18:31 PM Jeff || Dave they don't need to show that on public television
11/17/2007 10:18:35 PM Dave Jeff || Uh, no
11/17/2007 10:18:38 PM Jeff || Dave and i havent watched that commercial since
11/17/2007 10:18:41 PM Dave Jeff || A simple "be careful" will suffice
11/17/2007 10:18:52 PM Dave Jeff || That was just fucking horrible
11/17/2007 10:19:02 PM Dave Jeff || I dont' think I've ever seen anything so graphic in my entire life
11/17/2007 10:19:24 PM Jeff || Dave not even that time you watched all that 'gag on my cock' porn
11/17/2007 10:19:47 PM Jeff || Dave all that puking must've been awful
11/17/2007 10:20:04 PM Dave Jeff || Dude I've seen some pretty nasty shit in my day
11/17/2007 10:20:17 PM Dave Jeff || But that commercial is something that's gonna fucking
11/17/2007 10:20:21 PM Dave Jeff || Haunt me

Clearly, I was shocked.

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Yes, this is really shown on national airwaves.

[alien space marine]

The German safety video comes to mind that was more a comedy; Thats pretty graphic.

[Dark Jaguar]

....no....

Yeah at least the "public service announcements" locally are just self righteous and insulting. (They consist of some lady taking it upon herself to explain what "responsibility" is and that more "Tulsans" should incorporate that into their lives. Seriously, it's the most insulting thing I've ever seen come out of the local government here, and it sounds like some church sermon, what with some very specific and narrow definition of responsibility that isn't quite correct anyway.)

Oh and were all these "prevent it" things for restaurant peons? That's rather assuming a lot isn't it?

[Great Rumbler]

Pretty good stuff, if you ask me.

[DMiller]

What the heck is going on up in America North? That's pretty graphic for a commercial, let alone a PSA. Is someone scarred because of kitchen grease every hour?

[Dark Jaguar]

Good how?

[etoven]

11/17/2007 10:18:38 PM Jeff || Dave and i havent watched that commercial since
11/17/2007 10:18:41 PM Dave Jeff || A simple "be careful" will suffice
11/17/2007 10:18:52 PM Dave Jeff || That was just fucking horrible
11/17/2007 10:19:02 PM Dave Jeff || I dont' think I've ever seen anything so graphic in my entire life
11/17/2007 10:19:24 PM Jeff || Dave not even that time you watched all that 'gag on my cock' porn
11/17/2007 10:19:47 PM Jeff || Dave all that puking must've been awful
11/17/2007 10:20:04 PM Dave Jeff || Dude I've seen some pretty nasty shit in my day
11/17/2007 10:20:17 PM Dave Jeff || But that commercial is something that's gonna fucking
11/17/2007 10:20:21 PM Dave Jeff || Haunt me

<IMG SRC="http://www.friedmanarchives.com/British%20Columbia/images/Canadian%20Flag%208x12%20300%20dpi.jpg" Height=200>

*Sings Oww Canada.... my home and native land...
Solutes guy being busted in the head with a hockey stick.

[lazyfatbum]

LMGDAO

Never, since the AT&T "I got to talk to my son that I never met" commercial of 1988 and the infamous 'Hamster Cannon' superbowl commercial has television so viciously attacked the public, even to degrees outside what was once believed possible.

I watched like half of it, the poor black guy, the poor, poor black guy. No one can deny how funny that was.

"--But they really should check these tan *FOOM*"

*body flies 30 feet out, falls 4 stories down and hits a truck*

hfg I lawl'd so hard. I mean, it's not funny. Similar things have happened and people really have died, but the timing of that commercial, it seriously reminded me of Python. I wanted so badly to hear someone, after the dude fell and hit the truck and went lifeless "Are you okay?" that would have made it gold. I'm not watching the rest of the video though, that shit's nas-T.

[lazyfatbum]

OMG i just watched the rest of the video out of morbid curiosity, the others are Dawn of the Dead! instead of shocking you they're just freaking kreepy!

"Did Mel Gibson make these??" rotflmao what the fuck is wrong with Canada!?

[Dark Jaguar]

You see this is what happens when a prime minister intent on uncovering an alien conspiracy decides that moose, outnumbering canadians, should be given equal rights lest an uprising occur.

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[EdenMaster]

What the heck is going on up in America North? That's pretty graphic for a commercial, let alone a PSA. Is someone scarred because of kitchen grease every hour?

I would guess they're pretty desensitized up there, if the amount of cursing used by two people in a three minute period is any indication :D

[A Black Falcon]

Woah... that's going to get people's attention.

[EdenMaster]

OK, I'm with lazy on that one. That second one with the construction accident. That was freaking funny. The timing was perfect. FOOM! -silence- *THUD*

But the grease one...ya. That's a bit too much for public television. The last three aren't so bad because they're unrealistic, dead people coming back to life to mourn their, and others, stupidity. But the first one, where we actually get to SEE a woman being scalded to death by hot oil...yeah. Too much.

[Dark Jaguar]

Okay so I watched it and here's my thoughts. The last three are graphic but don't have the people screaming in pain as the realistic makeup effects are showing the event in "real time". They react calmy and talk as such after the fact. The second one is just old fasioned brutality, sudden and unpredictable. The first is the very worst.

In the end though, what is wrong with the people putting this on the air? Is there some epidemic of accidents happening? Don't these people get on the job training already? If that's not going to get them to work safely, I don't think the National Department of Condescending Paternalism is going to get them to do any better.

One semantic gripe: Those are still accidents, by definition. If those aren't, then what exactly is left for that word to describe?

[alien space marine]

canadian idiot

Can you give me the code to create and link utube videos like you guys?

[Dark Jaguar]

Sure. If you go to that page you'll see I posted the code to the right of the flash video in a text box that says "embed".

[Fittisize]

DJ - The idea here is that so often people aren't given the necessary training and proper safety instructions, especially in industrial settings. Around here, the entire economy is driven by the oil industry, and there are literally thousands of cases of people losing fingers, arms, or otherwise getting badly injured on the rigs. I know several people missing fingers from completely preventable “accidents”, but so often they are brought into the workplace and are expected to just pick things up as they go along. In fact, often the only piece of safety advice young roughnecks get on the oilpatch is “don’t stick your finger anywhere you wouldn’t stick your penis”. Often times this sort of blue-collar logic is all there is to go by, and indeed in Alberta, many people live their life according to this line of thinking. Any accidents that occur are NEVER because the worker wasn’t given the proper training. It’s because he’s a goddamn idiot and should damn well know better! And when you’re fresh out of high school and on the workforce and getting $8,000/month, plus all fuel and vehicle expenses paid for, there’s really no option but to just go with the flow, lest you get shunned. When there is such a high demand for workers and product, there really isn’t much time to worry about expensive safety training, especially when you’ve got a job to do.

Of course, this is a bit different than cleaning up grease in a kitchen, but I guess proper training should be given everywhere.

[Dark Jaguar]

How do you reconsile the majority of what you said with the statement "Any accidents that occur are NEVER because the worker wasn’t given the proper training."? From what you just told me, it seems clear that they DON'T get the proper training, and there's no excuse for that. Training can't be that expensive. Just spend a week in a course on how not to kill yourself, covering regulations and the specifics. Demanding that "common sense" should get the job done is an invitation to disaster.

[Fittisize]

How do you reconsile the majority of what you said with the statement "Any accidents that occur are NEVER because the worker wasn’t given the proper training."?

Ah, I was speaking from the typical blue-collar rigger's perspective, not mine personally.

[Great Rumbler]

Training can't be that expensive.

Time is money, as they say. Why spend a week training your workers when you can have them actually produce something during that time?

[Dark Jaguar]

Because time spent doing a job correctly is time not wasted doing a bad job, having people get killed, paying the money to the family due to that, and hiring a new inexperienced worker from scratch. So even if you are heartless enough to ignore the moral issue it would seem it is still in your best interests to train rig workers formally before they get on the job. One thing's for sure. A 30 second ad isn't going to be sufficient to prevent these things.