Scary public information films of the UK

In The Guardian, Alexis Petridis penned a fantastic reflection on the UK's scary public information films of the 1960s to 1980s. For more than 60 years, the government's Central Office of Information (COI) created FUD-fostering films about talking to strangers, playing with matches, sticking things in electric outlets, rabies, slippery floors, etc. (Back in 2009 at BB Gadgets, Rob put together a remarkable compendium of such films!) The COI was shut down last week due to funding cuts. From The Guardian:

The public information films aimed at children seem to speak of a different age of parenting, when you kept the kids in line by the simple expedient of terrifying them ("Get a move on or the Yorkshire Ripper'll get you!" as my mother used to say) and/or thumping them: quick and pointed and vicious, they were the cinematic equivalent of a smack on the legs. The ones aimed at adults, meanwhile, offer a weird index of largely forgotten fears. You watch them and think: whatever happened to rabies? It seemed to be an ever-present menace during my childhood. All it was going to take was one irresponsible Frenchman to smuggle his poodle through customs and we were going to be facing what one public information film called "death in a manner that is beyond description". I assumed it had been eradicated but no: rabid bats were found in Scotland in 2009. It's hard to imagine the COI in its prime would have missed the opportunity to turn that news into 60 seconds of matchless terror, perhaps involving jolly footage of people tossing the caber, massed pipe bands etc, interspersed with images of a child convulsing and foaming at the mouth and a solemn voiceover: "One wee boy won't be enjoying the Highland games this year."

"Danger! The world's scariest films!" (via @chris_carter_)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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A compendium: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/08/21/mind-the-gap-a-compe.html
- http://www.matthewpetty.com/ Matthew Petty
  
  I remember my classmates and I laughing at how the kid’s flares caught fire in “Electricity Substation”. Hur hur flares!
Navin_Johnson

Reminds me of the fabulous “Shake Hands with Danger” film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_gEVILWVUM
- millie fink
  
  Wow, thanks, that’s all kinds of fabulous! All kinds of awesome too.
bingowings85

How stranger danger changed the way children play
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8399749.stm
Increased traffic was also to blame.
millie fink

So THAT’S where Ahnuld got his tag line!
sickkid1972

“JIMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!” *BZZZZRRRTT!!!* *ZAP!*

Heh heh! Brings back fond childhood memories…
Ralidius

Archived under W. For W.T.F. .
Robert Dewar

Hold me! I’m a’ scared…
http://lefty68.myopenid.com/ Lefty 68

I went to England in the late 80s when I was in college and still remember seeing the “death beyond description” rabies ad.
- dnebdal
  
  Admittedly, death by rabies seems rather nasty. Add in how the untreated survival rate is effectively zero, and if you start showing symptoms, it’s too late for the vaccine and your only chance is an experimental protocol that has worked once, and it’s one of those things I’d rather be slightly paranoid about.
  
  edit: Apparently, there have been a few more survivors – it seems to have something like a 10% survival rate.
angstrom

I remember the embedded clip well, it didn’t dissuade me from playing around the dark and lonely waters near my house … it just gave them an added frisson of spooky danger! Thanks Donald Pleasence!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Water
egriff5514

There actually was some sort of rabies outbreak in around 1969 in Camberley, Surrey where I went to school… local wildlife was shot and dogs quarantined/muzzled. So it seemed perfectly reasonable to me!