Public Information Films (PIFS)

[branny]

Re: Safety Ads

Anyone remember the scary Vandal posters from the mid 70s. We seemed to have them posted everywhere at school at the time. They had a vandal committing some sort of crime with vandal maimed, electrocuted etc along with various other unfortunate outcomes if you got up to no good.

[BlitzKid]

Re: Do You Remember This Road Safety Ad?

Was this one a cartoon or was it actors? I definitely remember a cartoon advert that matches this description. The sight of the mother's comically flattened corpse on the road from that one could easily scar a kid for life!

And I seem to remember another cartoon safety advert that was perhaps more disturbing, where a woman's baby went hurtling across the road after she forgot to strap the baby into its pram... my memory of that one's only vague though.

[chrisredditch]

Re: Do You Remember This Road Safety Ad?

I can't say I remember that one.
I do remember the one which started with the Voice Over saying "This Child has 30 seconds to Live"
It then showed a Mum coming in with the shopping but leaving the front gate open. A countdown clock, in the corner of the screen, then ticked down until the little girl in ad expired in front of a car! Scary!!

[BlitzKid]

Re: Do You Remember This Road Safety Ad?

Stroke of luck! I've found this advert on YouTube. And the one I remembered with the mother and baby just happens to be on the same video too, although not quite as scary as I remembered. Here's the link!

YouTube - The Scary Side of Public Service Annoucements and Public Information Films

[mazzer]

70's public information film

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I'm new to this site today!

Does anyone else remember the creepy "Spirit of Dark and Lonely Waters" public info warning kids against going near riverbanks? It had a faceless (black void) cowled figure who looked like a cross between a benedictine monk and the grim reaper, watching over riverbanks waiting to catch "the weak, the unwary, the fool". One boy falls in trying to rescue a football from a tree branch ("that branch is weak..rotten.. [splash!] ...all too easy.."), then a boy swimming despite a written warning sign ("only a fool would ignore this...but there's one born every minute") then 2 more kids turn up just in time to rescue him ("sensible children - I have no power over them.."). The figure collapses into a heap, just like Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the girl throws his cloak into the water. It all ends with the echoing words "I'll be back..back..back..back...."

Scared the bejesus out of me when I was little! Wonder if it's on youtube anywhere?

[mazzer]

Re: 70's public information film

Thanks for replying so quickly - just watched it again, still scary after all these years! Am I right in thinking that Donald Pleasance is the voice of the Spirit? Certainly sounds like him!

[sixtyten]

Re: 70's public information film

Deffo Donald P

[Richard1978]

Re: 70's public information film

I was thinking of that PIF just the other day!

It's on the Charlie Live Video, & Charlie Says DVD collections of PIFs.

[ann22]

Re: 70's public information film

I remember it well. It was on that 100 scariest moments on Ch4 wasn't it? Another ad that disturbed me was this doll sinking into a pile of grain and there was another one where this man hands a child (from the camera's point of view) a doll after pulling it out of a plastic bag..I think it was a warning about plastic bags smothering babies.

[mazzer]

Angry Farmer - Follow The Country Code

Anyone remember this cartoon public information ad? It featured a little bloke called Joe and his wife Petunia. They went on a picnic, left gates open, left litter, threw stones at bottles and smashed them, and commented on their dog having a lovely time with those sheep.
Petunia - "Oh look Joe, there's a farmer over there with a purple face!"
(Farmer has a tantrum, waving arms and hopping from foot to foot in fury)
Joe - "Oh yes, and he appears to be doing one of those funny country dances".

I seem to recall there was another ad featuring Joe and Petunia at the seaside, where Joe gets swept out sea on an inflatable lilo or something. Ring any bells?

[Richard1978]

Re: Angry Farmer - Follow The Country Code

I was thinking about that PIF just a couple of day ago!

All the ones in that series are on the Charley Says compilation of old information films.

[sixtyten]

Re: Angry Farmer - Follow The Country Code

Anyone remember this cartoon public information ad? It featured a little bloke called Joe and his wife Petunia. They went on a picnic, left gates open, left litter, threw stones at bottles and smashed them, and commented on their dog having a lovely time with those sheep.
Petunia - "Oh look Joe, there's a farmer over there with a purple face!"
(Farmer has a tantrum, waving arms and hopping from foot to foot in fury)
Joe - "Oh yes, and he appears to be doing one of those funny country dances".

I seem to recall there was another ad featuring Joe and Petunia at the seaside, where Joe gets swept out sea on an inflatable lilo or something. Ring any bells?

click to watch

http://www2.tv-ark.org.uk/pifs/pifs_g-l.html

[steveffisher]

Re: Joe and Petunia..... ads

Wasn't Petunia voiced by Wendy 'Butterflies' Craig?

[Paul Davidson]

Re:Public Information Films.

It was the rather unpleasant sound effects used just before she gets hit then the horrible scream he lets out when she's been knocked over. 30 Seconds To Live is also rather nasty, especially the long shot of the mother's face at the end.

[Paul Davidson]

Re: Public Information Films.

The two scariest PIFs from my childhood only just appeared on You Tube this year and especially the first one had me running out of the room the moment I saw the first shot of it;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-szOc6aNRI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dywbpC2vNc


Both very cold and terrifying to young children.