![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaHello. I've been on holiday, but I'm back now. More of that another day.
This morning, I read on the BBC that advertising cigarettes on TV was banned in the UK in 1965. Gosh, I thought, that's weird, I'm sure I remember seeing ads on TV when I was a kid.
So I thought about it a bit, and concluded that the only one I could actually remember was about the first "born smoker". And so I googled that, and it turns out it wasn't an ad, it was an anti-smoking government public information film.
However, much more excitingly it turns out I now know that there is a massive archive of public information films. Did you know that? You didn't tell me.
I've remembered I'm supposed to be at work, so apart from checking out the First Born Smoker and a couple of films featuring Charley, I have restrained myself. Oh, apart from the watching the extremely peculiar The Fatal Floor.
I had been going to comment that the period 1964-1979 boasts a whopping 38 films in the archive, while 1979-2006 fields a mere 16 for a timespan nearly twice as long. However, I think it's probably a good thing if the government no longer feels the need to make short films to warn us not to fall over rugs.
Are public information films still made? I barely ever watch TV, so wouldn't see them. I hope they are.
Also, does anyone remember a longer version of the First Born Smoker film? I'm sure there was a bit about how children "will be exposed to smoke from an early age, by people called 'friends'".
This morning, I read on the BBC that advertising cigarettes on TV was banned in the UK in 1965. Gosh, I thought, that's weird, I'm sure I remember seeing ads on TV when I was a kid.
So I thought about it a bit, and concluded that the only one I could actually remember was about the first "born smoker". And so I googled that, and it turns out it wasn't an ad, it was an anti-smoking government public information film.
However, much more excitingly it turns out I now know that there is a massive archive of public information films. Did you know that? You didn't tell me.
I've remembered I'm supposed to be at work, so apart from checking out the First Born Smoker and a couple of films featuring Charley, I have restrained myself. Oh, apart from the watching the extremely peculiar The Fatal Floor.
I had been going to comment that the period 1964-1979 boasts a whopping 38 films in the archive, while 1979-2006 fields a mere 16 for a timespan nearly twice as long. However, I think it's probably a good thing if the government no longer feels the need to make short films to warn us not to fall over rugs.
Are public information films still made? I barely ever watch TV, so wouldn't see them. I hope they are.
Also, does anyone remember a longer version of the First Born Smoker film? I'm sure there was a bit about how children "will be exposed to smoke from an early age, by people called 'friends'".
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-03-06 07:34 pm (UTC)I mean, you actually saw him getting electrocuted live there on the screen! Jesus. Christ.
(Sorry if I've given anybody else nightmares now by reminding them of it.)
no subject
Date: 2012-03-07 10:44 am (UTC)However, since we've started... I'm pretty sure I remember being scared of "Peach and Hammer" when I was kid, but I have to say yesterday it just made me laugh.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-07 11:09 am (UTC)Ooh, Lonely Water, that was another nightmare one.
Gah, you've started me now!
no subject
Date: 2012-03-07 11:22 am (UTC)Curse those Sensible Children, curse them!
no subject
Date: 2012-03-07 11:38 am (UTC)Fortunately that's not one of the worst ones for me. The fireworks ones absolutely traumatised me - I'm still scared of fireworks displays.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-07 11:50 am (UTC)It's a US promo-film made by General Motors to advertise their new range of cars for '56. Oh, and to advertise Frigidaire kitchens. It's about as sexist as you'd expect a kitchen ad of the 50s to be, but is fabulously weird.