#listicle

Of all the weird media topics needlessly ranked by the bored media hunters, Public Service Announcements/PSAs and Public Information Films/PIFs are one of them.

PSAs fascinate people because they cross-sect a few different subcultures: "extreme" dark and horror media-seekers for their fear factor (intentional or unintentional); educators and activists for how good/bad they at conveying their messages and how that in turn affects their causes; lost media hunters and nostalgia miners who like to tap into that 'forgotten' mindset of media sleuths; and commentator analysis-types because they are the purest form of outright propaganda you can find. That last part is where I mostly fall into, though I'm also a bit of an obscure interest-type/horror enjoy-er as well as filthy social justice appreciater.

While PSAs on youtube are compiled together based on how good,//bad/"TRAUMATIZING!!!" they are, I gotta be honest with you guys: I feel as though neither the compilations or the wiki are interested in actually reviewing the ads as pieces of art. They're more about ranking and rating them on a scale. So that's what I want to do. I want to break down the PSAs I've found and am most familiar with and which ones are the best at what they do. Seeing as I'm such an animation-fan, naturally my first post about this is going to be looking at animated PSAs. I hope you enjoy.

"Chain on your Front Door"

I think this is just a basic 'home security' ad for British 70s people. The wiki I found it on is shaky on who made it for what purpose. No matter what I kinda just find it adorable and hilarious.

A chainlock-security ad can so easily be used to push dangerous messaging, but not this one. It's mostly great at conveying it's message while also having fun with it's premise once it gets to the 'escaped lunatic' at the door.

Beloved Mum x Escaped Lunatic enemies-to-lovers fic writers out there where are ya'll?

"Mr. Yuk"

Our first 'horrific' PSA is technically more illustrated than animated. But in the words of Mr. Incredible 'it's not real so it's animated!', so it counts. This one is obviously before my time but I'm sure based on presentation alone that this thing must've given 70s-80s kids nightmares. Impressive as it's not even the most graphic or disturbing spot with it's imagery; it just effectively sounds and feels as unpleasant as possible. The narrator is what a little kid envisions an angry child-hating goblin sounds like and his sneering and nasty voice is so taunting and aggressive. It REALLY helps get it into the minds of ALL kids watching to keep an eye out for Mr. Yuk.

NSWHealth - "Me No Fry"

Found this one recently and I gotta say I absolutely dig it. Appealing and 'cool' stop motion (Will Vinton?) that warns against going out without sunscreen. When you use anthropomorphic things to convey that, in this case eggs, it's easy to have the message be missed on the audience. Somehow, maybe because they're eggs and we know what we are supposed to do with em, that works just fine here. A great PSA that's effective, has a gruesome death but somehow isn't scary at all and fun to rewatch is an anomaly. Very fashionable.

Metro - “Dumb Ways to Die”

One of the best ways to get a message across is to go viral for all the RIGHT reasons; the early 2010s short ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ ranks highly for that exact feat- Being a mostly adorably gruesome Darwin Awards showcase with simple blob people. It gets the point of how ridiculous and minded minded the deaths are across, BEFORE it reveals itself to be a train-safety psa. The effects of the casualties in the third act work just as well as the earlier ones BECAUSE of the short’s humor, and it really drives (lol) home the point as viscerally as it can while also somehow not being traumatizing.

It’s not enough to die horribly from something that’s your own doing- to die horribly and ridiculously as the guy who took his helmet off in outer space really sends a clear message: be safe around trains. It’s like if Happy Tree Friends had a point.

Keep London Clean - “Take out the Trash”

This is a very brief but VERY fun animation I just happened to find on youtube by accident. It's now skyrocketed in popularity which is deserved. Truly nothing I could add here. A great use of 90s alternative British humor. I'm sure tweens and teens got a kick out of it.

UNICEF - "'Rights of Children'-series"; "Expression", "Heritage", "Association", "Privacy", "Displacement", "Landmines", "Kidnapping", "War", "Child Labour", "CSA"

When I hear the word "Unicef" I automatically think of the Cartoon Network trick or treating PSAs from my childhood, or that time they sent toy food to Gaza. Yeah, they dropped the ball on that one; really soured my opinion even though I know they've done some good since then. One thing UNICEF did NOT drop the ball on were their PSA campaigns of the 90s-2000s on the rights of children.

There they commissioned different animation companies across the world to animate the value of different children’s rights. The cutest of these are “freedom from Expression” by Nickelodeon+Pixar, “freedom of Association” by Bardel, and “right of Displaced Children” by studio Kapow. The "right to morality" one by Disney is basic but quite beautiful. “Freedom of Heritage” by Shane Russel of Aboriginal Nationals is a really good message and I like the style, even if the eyes of the kids at the end can be a little off-putting. I’ve seen people say the “right to Privacy”-ad is scary but to me that it ends on a happy note personally negates that. 

As for the nightmare fuel, there’s NO lack of that. “Protection from Kidnapping” (made by the studio which made Felidae) and “Child Labour” by RAI are both pretty raw. The most infamous of these (in how startling it is, but also that it was made by the studio behind Arthur and Calliou) is definitely “protection from landmines”; that one doesn’t even show real pictures in the end, just the sudden style flip and the audio que alone is terrifying. I think the one made by Claudia Zollar on "protection from CSA" is one of the smartest shorts on the subject as it thankfully doesn't show you anything, it's just the detail of where the dad is stepping on the teddy bear which conveys enough. The one that sticks with me the most is the one made by Hannah Barbara about “protection during wartime”. The way it goes from looking and feeling like a lesser 90s Goodtimes animation to smash cutting to the kid’s face is just....horrifying to me. I don't know why it just has that affect...

Acres Singapore - “Tools of Destruction”

This Singaporean PSA about the horrors of shark-finning is AMAZING. It looks as though it’s animated entirely on soup spoons which are traditionally served at weddings with Sharkfin Soup. No clue if it actually was or not, but it's convincing either way. The use of the streamline blue etchings to the sudden horrific use of red on the white porcelain speaks to universal empathy of the audience. I myself don’t live in a country/community that eats Sharkfin Soup. But, like any good animal right’s PSA should do, it puts you in the position of knowing why and how people do these things and it's not a matter of cruelty from the consumers themselves. It’s a matter of people not understanding the real cost of what their beautiful wedding feast actually means for animals and the planet. Humans don’t WANT to cause harm, but we end up contributing to it if we DON'T know what it is we're doing...

Jewish Voice for Peace - “Hate hurts You”

I know very little about 'Jewish Chautauqua Society' as an organization. I mostly just want to highlight this absolutely fantastic vintage PSA they did about the general concept of hate and prejudice.

It works in a similar way the Mr. Yuk ad works. It's frightening and allegorical, a great way to express to kids and adults what hate (bigotry) really looks like on the inside. It also never feels like positivity-culture garbage somehow, but more of a genuine call to people not to fall in line with regressive thoughts and politics. You know, or else your head will literally blow up.

JSC - “You Can’t Buy a Brain” 1 - 4

A classic of the youtube PSA scene on road safety…also probably the most fun collection of PSAs to watch. Like “Dumb Ways to Die” it's gruesomely fun but still incentivizes the lesson in your mind: STOP MESSING WITH PUBLIC TRANSPORT YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING. A PSA is still a PSA, so no matter what these are still made by the Russian government (which is corrupt; but so is mine as well, cheers) and are pretty BlueLivesMatter-y. Nothing is perfect. At least they can be watched and enjoyed for free.

I admire the sound design and art that feels like a mash up of Phineas and Ferb and Ed, Edd n’ Eddy. Also he fact that the shady clerk at the gadget shops appears to be Nostalgia Critic stands out to me.

Sheena’s Place - “Hansel and Gretel”

This is a beautifully animated commercial, first and foremost. I kind of wonder if it was made by the same people who did those raunchy Moviefone.com ads? Like those, this one involves a fairytale set up that then swerves in the last place you’d expect. There’s no ‘witch’ in this version of Hansel and Gretel cuz there doesn’t need of one; the antagonist is the eating disorder inside Gretel's head. There’s something about how Gretel’s parents talk to her that also hits really hard. Like in real life it’s not straight up bullying that gets Gretel depressed, the parents think they’re just doing some good-natured riffing on their kid for eating too much, not realizing it’s contributing to her sickness and affecting her mentally. How tragic. 

The version that's often seen as 'horrific' lacks sound and extra music cues, with only the background of 'Peter and the Wolf' playing...and I gotta say that version is a lot more unsettling than the intended 'finished' version of the ad, which feels just more sad and soothing with the narrators voice at the end chiming in.

Sumatran Orangutan Society - "Bare Necessities"

Hot DAMN! You really had to go the extra mile with this one huh? Even though most of the animations are just traced over from the original, it doesn't really take away from the pain of seeing Jungle Book characters misplaced and homeless in the streets, looking all sad, like they missed the exist to Toontown in Roger Rabbit and are forced to live like and feel like the non-animated animals around them. It's all very sad.

Greenpeace - "Rang Tan in My Bedroom"

Greenpeace is so-so in how it handles and actually assures it's viewers of environmental concerns. A lot of the time they come off as way too preachy or sentimental for no reason and it makes you resent the message by proxy, which is bad...But then there's this beautifully made Disney caliber-animation made about deforestation. A lovely send up to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, it hits hard and swift with the story it tells. Another win for the rainbow warriors.

Greenpeace - “Turtle Journey”

Ya’ can’t go wrong with Aardman, truly. It’s a little over-sentimental of course, and some animal rights’ folks have a thing against anthropomophizing so as not to make humans only care through picturing ourselves as animals. Personally this is one of those occasions where I think it’s fair game. Aardman knows that, because people associate them with Shaun the Sheep, that people are not going to take a tacky British turtle family going on holiday seriously…until it suddenly hits you with the fracking scene. Very Chicken Run of you, Greenpeace. Good work.

Whale and Dolphin Society - “Faroe Islands”

This one goes up here solely for presentation. Anthony Perkin’s voice over is CHILLING and disturbing and the ever shifting painting art style is horrific. I hate people call this “AI but without AI”. NO! This is literally anything BUT AI; this is an animation made for the sake of the artform. 

Content wise the reaction seems to be a little mixed. I personally only support hunting when it’s done for cultural reasons- drive hunting and commercial ‘sport’ hunting is unnecessary. The trouble is I have no idea how much of the Faroe Island pilot-whale hunts are actual indigenous people’s rights or not. If it is, then yes I would call this short demonization of the Faroe people. If it’s not, and the hunts described here are, in reality, more akin to “rattlesnake roundups” we have here in the US…I kinda have to disagree on this one being ‘biased’. There are cultural rites that belong to us humans as the animals we are, especially among closed practices, and then there are practices that don’t benefit anyone and are just cruelty, like shark finning (mentioned above), or sport hunting. No need of it. 

Maryland Department of Health and Hygiene - “Boneheads”

A very stylish lil anti-smoking ad from the naughty 90s for kids. I think it's crowd was more MTV, but it's style just makes me thing of Nickelodeon and PBS Kids ads. Good job at coming off less preachy and more of admittance of how smoking IS gross and bad for your body. Tho, if this ad aired back when Tim Burton was a kid it probably would have encouraged him to get into drugs even earlier than he did...

??? - "Talking Gas"

Yikes! Another stylish British 70s PSA we have here, but another one that's super effective and just shocking enough in it's end. Maybe it's all just personal to me but I find gas leaks horrifying.

CDPH - "The Adventures of Nic (A Teen)"

While the 'Boneheads' PSA is more about effects of smoking and how it's actually a scary thing kids shouldn't do, this really well animated ad is about how gross and 'uncool' actual smoking addiction is. I personally don't find it patronizing to the teenage audience it was intended for, regardless of how effective it may or may not be.

MTV - “Stories - Human Trafficking”

While MTV may be just a shell of its former self, sometimes the network can still knock a good one out. In this case it’s a chilling illustrated video on the dangers of human trafficking. It doesn’t make light of the subject and is very informative on how modern trafficking usually works. It's disturbingly accurate to how companies and organizations which can ‘look and feel’ legit and welcoming will bait desperate people into thinking everything’s okay -> reveal their true selves once they have their victim 'alone'. It’s important to remember the facts with modern day slavery: if you are promised money but not given it/paid below minimum that amount, YES it still counts as slavery. You aren’t a cog in a corporate machine that at least has a union or insurance; you are a living breathing tool and you are being FORCED to do labor you did not sign up for. Sadly a very necessary PSA today for my country.

Independent - Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

This PSA comes from no organization directly. It’s from an independent youtube channel and is a clear metaphor for online predators and catfish-ers, a topic that will never stop being relevant. A predator can be anywhere from shameless about their paraphilia or in abject denial of it, but no matter what the truth of them ALWAYS stands: they have a method. They have targets and a ‘type’. They rarely ever have ‘one’ victim and they know how to hide in patches of legitimate people. They wear a mask, or a suit, to blend in. Very creepy.

California Department of Health - “Crocodile Tears 1, 2 and 3”

These wonderful, I dare say “classical” PSAs voiced by Harry Shearer (of ‘Steamed Hams’ fame) are a great example of “nothing is scarier”. In lieu of showing you the effects tobacco, these shorts are more about showing you how slimy and gross the Tobacco industry is to its customer base. The way that crocodile says “Bingo” in the second PSA is so creepy to me for some reason.

Montana Meth Project - "'Stories' series"

Montana Meth Project had Darren Aronofsky and others help them out on their most theatrical, TERRIFYING ads, so why not give that kind of attention to the stories of addicts in animation? Oriah's story, while maybe not being the most grizzly, is the one that always breaks my heart. I don't know where he is today but I want so much to reach out and give him a hug. That poor man. Each one is animated in a way that somehow makes you feel the pain of the narrators in their voices, even when the audio is on mute. Very stylish, very 2010s in the best possible way.

-NSFW-Campaign Contra-NSFW-- "El Sida ads 1, 2 and 3"

I can't link these cuz they're NSFW but they're very funny and strangely joyous in spite of the subject matter. They're about AIDS prevention and how it is and is not spread, so naturally yes you do see some little Venus and Ares symbols grinding and putting on condoms.

I appreciate that the second ad has a gay couple and is not being shamed for it but rather that they are having unprotected sax and THAT'S what's dangerous. How oddly progressive for the 90s.

Kindernothilfe - "Birds and Bees"

Not linking this one one account of imagery+subject matter horror that conveys it's metaphor VERY WELL. I don't know why, frankly, more people talking about PSAs aren't bothered by it...

The sound in the kid's voice as the bee bothers the blossom rather than the already opened flowers...it makes you cringe in the way it needs you to but not in the way you want to. It's like the child singing is the flower itself and already you have images you don't want to see in your mind's eye.

Would not recommend to ANY survivors of SA, but genuinely effective.

Humane Society - “Save Ralph”

The final animal rights PSA and last PSA of the list period comes from the Humane Society. It is one of only two PSAs to also be on my “animated shorts to see before you die” lists. A cry against cosmetic testing -which is sick; no need of it especially not now when we have so many synthetic means of testing products for our skin or health- this Taika Waititi film is great at telling you the facts of the matter. Besides one quip at the end about ‘being in a field, like a normal rabbit’, it never comes off as too preachy. Cosmetic testing is still happening and yes it deserves scrutiny. As the ad says, "no animal deserves to die for the sake of beauty".