Public Awareness ads



Yesterday I saw a good public awareness ad by Government of India on listening music through headphones on roads. Thre is a animated character called Chintu who is very fond of music and always listens through headphones wherever he is. One day he puts on his headphones and start walking on the road. He could not hear the horn of the approaching vehicle and meets with a fatality. The ad was concise but the message is clear.

Nowadays many would have observed that people put on the headphones and start listening to music the moment they get out of their house. This does not stop when they cross the roads, get on or off the buses / trains. The people walk and act like Zombies and does not even respond normally. In my childhood, whenever I listened to radio (cricket commentary) for more than an hour my mother used to shout at me stating that continuously listening to such loud sounds from a close range impairs hearing. She was a semi-literate and told this out of common sense. I wonder what would be the hearing capabilities of these youngsters who listen to such loud music through headphones 10 years into the future. May be stage whispers instead of the normal whispers will become norm of the day.

With regards to the obsession of the current generation with regards to recording with the mobile phone, I saw a T-shirt in one of the malls where a man is drowning in a stream / lake while a person standing on the shore is filming with his mobile phone. The caption is "New Generation". Well there is not much difference between earlier generations and the new generation (particularly in India). Most of the people in earlier generations found in such a situation used to gawk at while the current generation is whipping out their mobile phone to film it. Basically there should be more civic sense and the imparting of civil defence trainings to all the people.

I remember seeing one more ad from Government of India around 10-15 years back on wearing helmets. An orange / melon is put on a table. A helmet is placed on the same and hit by a hammer. In the next scene, the helmet is removed and hit again by the hammer only to crush the fruit. The caption displayed by "Choice is yours - after all head is yours". The ad no doubt appears brutal but is very effective.

Wish the government comes out with more such ads regularly.

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