The 1960s and the 1970s were the heyday the public service advertising — the brightest minds of Madison Avenue focusing their creative genius against littering, smoking, forest fires. The idea was to push the public toward good behavior, and the commercials could be wildly creative.
Lately, I don't see much of that kind of thing in the shattered remnants of the old school media. Which is a shame, because we still need it, as I was reminded by this poster spied earlier this year by Union Station. Sadly, too much of the debate over a sane gun policy falls into a 0-or-1 non-debate over laws. When, obviously, we aren't ready for more laws. What we need is to prepare people with more education. The Ad Council thundered against smoking for years before cigarettes were banned in restaurants (I remember people seriously suggesting that nobody would dine out if they couldn't light up after a meal). It's a journey of small steps.
The suicide rate for gun owners is 9 times that of people who don't own guns. Buying a gun endangers yourself and your family — the odds of using to deter crime are tiny compared to the odds of accidents and self-harm. The time to find out if there's an unsecured, loaded gun in a night table drawer is before you send your kid to play over a friend's house. It "doesn't kill to ask," as the sign suggests, "if there's an unlocked gun in the house." In fact, asking might save someone's life. People ought to understand that, and the only way they will know is if somebody tells them. Over and over again.
Lately, I don't see much of that kind of thing in the shattered remnants of the old school media. Which is a shame, because we still need it, as I was reminded by this poster spied earlier this year by Union Station. Sadly, too much of the debate over a sane gun policy falls into a 0-or-1 non-debate over laws. When, obviously, we aren't ready for more laws. What we need is to prepare people with more education. The Ad Council thundered against smoking for years before cigarettes were banned in restaurants (I remember people seriously suggesting that nobody would dine out if they couldn't light up after a meal). It's a journey of small steps.
The suicide rate for gun owners is 9 times that of people who don't own guns. Buying a gun endangers yourself and your family — the odds of using to deter crime are tiny compared to the odds of accidents and self-harm. The time to find out if there's an unsecured, loaded gun in a night table drawer is before you send your kid to play over a friend's house. It "doesn't kill to ask," as the sign suggests, "if there's an unlocked gun in the house." In fact, asking might save someone's life. People ought to understand that, and the only way they will know is if somebody tells them. Over and over again.
A very necessary message.
ReplyDeleteHow sad that this question is even relevant.
ReplyDeleteYup. Bring back the tearful Native American
ReplyDeleteWho was actually an Italian-American actor.
DeleteAnd in classic advertising fashion, the "tearful Native American guy" wasn't even Native American! But the message definitely had impact.
DeleteYes, the inimitable Iron Eyes Cody's parents were indeed of Sicilian extraction. He, however, self identified as Native American.
DeleteUnfortunately, gun owners who experience a family death from a firearm do not necessarily eschew gun ownership. A PSA is not likely to move such people.
ReplyDeleteto hell with all of these guns
ReplyDeleteNot just accidents and self-harm. If your house is burglarized...then...VIOLA...another stolen gun on the mean streets. They're also looking for jewelry, electronics, and cash. But guns are the grand prize.
ReplyDeleteAs most parents would realize, hiding something from their children is nearly impossible. Sooner or later they’ll find it. It’s probably in the Bible or Newton’s law, or a theory of Einstein’s. That’s why Santa Claus keeps all those presents stashed at the North Pole.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 12, 3 or 5 of us were playing in my friends garage. His dad was a fairly accomplished artist in his spare time, plus he painted signs for a living, Ran his own 1 man company. The garage served more or less as his work studio. My buddy’s younger brother pulled a ladder over so that we could get up into the rafters, ‘cause there was a metal box hidden away with their dad’s pistol in it. There it was, we saw it, and he was smart enough to put it right back where it came from. I can think of one person in our group who, if he had been there, might have grabbed it and pulled the trigger. Just for fun. It was a one-off that could easily have been a disaster. I’m sure their dad didn’t imagine that anybody would find the pistol. Who the hell crawls around in the garage rafters? Oh yeah. 12 year old boys.
The next time I saw an unholstered pistol in real life was 30 years later, and it was being pointed at me.
Interestingly, at the time a new comedy showed up on television that can still be seen every day in reruns. Lots of people got a kick out of it, but the aforementioned father refused to allow his family to watch it. My buddy told me why not, but it took me years to realize the reasoning behind his dad being offended by an assorted group of Allied POWs having the time of their lives outwitting their clueless German captors. That was ‘Hogan’s Heroes’, and Stalags were not at all a fun place to be.
Was Daddy a POW? I didn't find the idea of that show very amusing, either. I was born just after WWII, to Jewish parents, so Nazis were never all that funny in our house. Most of my maternal grandmother's family went up the chimney, and became smoke and ashes. I have never watched that show. Not even once.
DeleteI've had guns in my face. Twice. Both times by cops.
In Chicago and in San Diego. Other stories for other times.
As for the cast of "Hogan's Heroes", Werner Klemperer, who played Colonel Klink, came from a Jewish family that had to leave Germany even though they had converted some time before. John Banner, who played Sergeant Schultz was an Austrian Jew that left because of the Nazis & then there's Robert Clary, a French Jew who actually was sent to a concentration camp & survived.
DeleteIf I am not mistaken some jews played Nazis in Casablanca. As for Hogan's Hero's obvously it was not meant to be serious. I just saw the end the Great Escape. I had seen it before. I don't know much about prisoner of war camps but they were not concentration camps. No doubt like in the Great Escape they probably shot escapees. Not to say it was great. I am Jewish so I understand was some Jews would not find the show funny.
Delete"Hiding" (yes, often not successful) and "Locking Up" (pretty effective) are not the same thing.
DeleteHH was from a time when many American adults, having survived World War II, thought they could easily dismiss fascists merely by poking fun at them. (See Mel Brooks' "The Producers.") They're never coming back, right? Our current era is, obviously, not of that time. Probably because our political culture lacks a sufficient number of "adults." Interesting that no one ever made a comedy about a Japanese POW camp. Somehow, my parents' generation didn't think war on that side of the world was the least bit funny.
DeleteThe "over and over again and again" is the key element. How many times does the message have to be bounced back before it penetrates? The smoking-is-bad commercials bounced off me for at least 20 years. I'd light up whenever a no-smoking commercial came on TV. Now, having abstained from tobacco for almost 50 years, my lungs aren't completely destroyed, my smelling sense hasn't entirely disappeared, my arteries are in pretty good shape after a couple bypass operations. Had I took up guns, I probably wouldn't be quite dead, but I likely would have lost a few weapons over the years to thieves of one sort or another.
ReplyDeletejohn
I smoked from 13 to 45. Quit cold turkey in '93, and thought I was out of the woods after almost 30 years. Nope. Doctor said I had lung damage from starting so young. Probably other side effects as well. I was warned that getting Covid would make me very sick. Which it did.
DeleteCommon sense. But good luck asking a neighbor if they have an unlocked gun before Jimmy comes over to play.
ReplyDelete