Health ads needn’t be so scary (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Health ads needn’t be so scary

8:44am Friday 8th May 2009 in

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Upon issuing a loud sneeze last night, I was instructed by my son to immediately go and wash my hands. He had been watching that TV advert about swine flu, where a group of people gather in a lift and start passing germs around like an episode of some apocalyptic drama such as Survivors.

Does anyone else think that the current crop of public information films that appear on the telly are, well, a bit too frightening?

There’s a new one about Advanced Macular Degeneration, in which a woman leaves her house to find that the world has transformed into a Salvador Dali-esque nightmare where all the straight lines go wavy.

Then there’s the one about strokes, in which a bloke is minding his own business watching a football match when his brain literally catches fire.

Now, I’m certainly not suggesting that it’s a bad thing that we all know what to look out for if we suspect that someone’s about to suffer a stroke, or that we spot the early warning signs for AMD.

But is it really necessary to put the fear of God in people?

Remember when public information films used to be cosy and cuddly? Remember Rolf Harris imploring us all to be careful near rivers and flooded quarries? “Kids and water. They love it.” Then he jumps into a swimming pool.

Remember the cartoon about the guy who can’t swim and his girlfriend goes off with Dave, who swims like a fish? What about the bloke who drives into a box junction and a giant hand comes down and picks up his car while he says in a Kenneth Williams nasal drawl: “Ooh, I’ve been nicked.”

Let’s get a bit more fun into public warnings before we raise a generation too scared to get out of bed.