Chilling bushfire safety message cleared by advertising watchdog
A “retraumatising” ad urging home owners to make detailed plans for bushfires has been cleared by the Advertising Standards Board.
The ad from the Victorian government features a blank screen with the sounds of a panicky family trying to make last moment plans as a smoke alarm sounds.
It was later attacked as being retraumatising for victims.
This is the most horrifying ad I have ever seen should be taken off the air.
Personally, I think this ad is absolutely horrendous. The acting is terrible and literally just sounds like four actors in a room pretending to be in a life-threatening situation. I think it is a good concept for an ad that won’t work because of how poorly it was executed.
I also don’t entirely agree with the complaint quoted above. I don’t really get the impression that this ad is putting the entire responsibility on the individual to survive.
Sounds like my house at dinner time.
Anyway here’s your award.
If the ad stops people travelling into bush fires, then it has achieved its objective. If it stops people travelling into bush fires and saves lives then it is a very valid ad.
With all the rain and a recent drowning, we now need an ad for people during floods.
May the floods end soon and people get back to normality or are the floods a warning of what is to come and another result of global warming, like bush fires.