Public Information Video/Research

For 65 years, the UK government’s Central Office of Information produced marketing literature and films to inform and educate the British public on all manner of subjects, often in dramatic and shocking fashion.

Given a list of public info videos, we were asked to choose one and then identify and analyse the following aspects:

- message

- key facts

- tone of voice

- audience

Pedestrian Crossing safety video from 1948...

Due to a rapid increase in road users, road safety campaigns were ever more important. This video focuses specifically on road crossings.

in 1951, there were 2 million cars on the road in Britain. This rose by 250% in the next 10 years. Changes were made to road crossings in order to protect pedestrians such as belisha beacons.

Althought the video is addressing something very serious, the tone of voice of the video is almost comical. A character, used in a number of different safety videos, is used to demonstrate the dangers of crossing a road and how road safety measures have been put onto place to help pedestrians. The character used is very animated and almost makes a joke out of getting hit by a car. 

The comedic value makes the video accessible to even a very young audience. 

Close to the edge made in 1983

This is another video addressing the dangers of crossing a road. it is a 1980s update of the Green Cross Code. 

It's a vibrantly colourful film with a variation of the Grandmaster Flash track 'The Message'. The video entails a young adolescent trying to cross a road.

Due to the vibrancy and use of a hip hop beat, the video is very up beat. It is clearly aimed at a young audience as the stats showed that a huge majority of road accidents involving pedestrians occurred to young people.