Fear as a Communication Tool: Hearty and Cruel Visuals
The Truth in Consequences
Ouch.
Today in class we talk about visuals and how to use them. Graphs, charts, line drawings, photographs—all the stuff we see every day in our media excursions. As a copywriter I am very fond of visuals: I love the way they succinctly tell the story I labor to explain with words.
But there is a genre of images we shy away from—images entirely out of sync with the pleasant, positive, climate-controlled and safe communication we aim for. These images follow the shock and awe tactics of the Brothers Grimm: show what happens when you don’t follow our rules. Things just may not turn out so well, Mister.
Bam!
You don’t need to know Russian to see that you really should be careful around turning axles, backing train cars and the odd drill press. And it was not so long ago in our country that we showed our youngsters exactly what might happen with their lively hijinks.
Pow!
But maybe we’ve gone too far with our de-linking of action and consequence. When writing copy I rarely name the negative side of things. Instead, I always build on the positive. Maybe we could all use a bit of that Russian backbone.
Not again!
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Image Credit: Soviet Posters via Copyranter. Vintage safety manual via Retronaut.
conversation is an engine 
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Fear as a Communication Tool: Hearty and Cruel Visuals « Details Have a Public Face
November 15, 2011 at 8:37 am
Dangit Elmer, I knew your James Dean haircut would come to no good.
Jon Mick
November 15, 2011 at 4:24 pm
I knew at the beginning of the story he was the one. It’s all about the haircut.
kirkistan
November 15, 2011 at 4:29 pm
[…] Hard-hitting Russian safety posters that need no translation Share this:ShareTwitterFacebookEmailStumbleUponDiggLike this:LikeBe the first to like […]
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