PIFs And PSAs

Public Health

The very first PIFs and PSAs were on Public Health issues - before the COI was founded, Richard Massingham started to film, act in, and release short PIFs intended to educate on etiquette such as sneezing into hankerchiefs, or how to use pedestrian crossings. Since then, various PSAs and PIFs on public health, safety, and wellbeing have been released, and of course, some of them are absolutely fucking terrifying. I have chosen to include a few different topics underneath this heading: PSAs on diseases, on smoking, on drug use, and on injury and first aid, will all be included here. With how many anti-smoking and anti-drug PSAs there have been, no doubt this page will be chock full.

Popcorn, 2010

This one is ridiculously hard hitting; I still get shivers watching it again. I remember being shocked the first time I saw this PSA - I can't even imagine what it must have been like to see it live. The sudden tonal shift, the way the colour slowly drains out of the video as the girl chokes, really ramps up the tension; the shouting and crying from the family is absolutely heartwrenching - and then the mother looking out to the audience and begging for help, pulling you into the scenario and making you feel like you're there. The twist of the actress stepping in and being able to revive the girl really makes the message hit all the harder.

Iceburg, 1987

There are a lot of AIDs PSAs from the 80s, and almost all of the Top 10 Scariest picks are from UK campaigns - and no wonder. There are quite a few of these adverts which creep me out, but personally, I find Iceburg to be the scariest. The cinematic cut above, which has no narration, is particularly creepy with its forboding music and silent text creating a really offputting, uneasy atmosphere. As a queer person, there's an additional little horror in the text "So far it's been contained to small groups. But it's spreading." - knowing that this crisis PSA was only deemed necessary when AIDs started spreading widely outside of the queer community, and that by this point, thousands of people had died without much care from the government or wider society. The TV version, which is a little more famously known, features voiceover by John Hurt.

Stay, 1988

Here we go with another AIDs PSA of the 80s. The harsh interruptions to a regular scene with sudden distorted, erratic music is what makes this one kind of creepy. Sudden cuts to black with matter of fact, brief text make this all feel very abrupt and give me a weird kind of dread feeling. To be fair, that's likely what they were going for, though I'm not sure they wanted the woman to seem so strangely threatening. Technically not all that scary, but the atmosphere just gives me goosebumps, so it gets included here.

Top Chef, 2007

The 'There are no accidents' campaign PSAs definitely got me good, when I first saw them. Top Chef is the one I always remember, the abruptness of the accident and the screaming that follows. It's not the most graphic, but it has a flash of it. There is a whole series of adverts in the campaign, which I found compiled here - personally, I find the ones more like this one to be scarier, versus the ones where the person stands up after the accident has happened.

Sarah's Story, 2009

This PSA ad is visceral. It starts off straight away in a creepy room, flickering lights and cold blue lighting, already setting up for something frightening. What follows is violent, sudden, and destructive - what little sound there is mainly consists of cracking joints and pained gasps. The voiceover following a flicker to black just reinforces the little chill this whole advert gives you. Definitely haunted me, as a child.

The Mirror, 2007

Now, technically, this one isn't scary at all. While the topic is certainly sad and tragic, the advert itself is relatively tame, though the 'shock' reveal of the anorexic girl is obviously meant to be hard hitting. Personally though, this PSA used to terrify me. I think because growing up, I had so many adults accusing me of anorexia, while ignoring the physical health problems I had - and this advert, I think, made me gaslight myself into wondering if I was wrong and they were right. So technically not a scary PSA, but one that ranks for me regardless.

Dangerous Machine, 2006

Ooohhh yeah this one gets me. The fear factor here is the sheer body horror of the thing. Of course, other things contribute - the anticipation, as the belt moves, the dread as the man's screams aren't heard. The way the sound cuts to silence and ringing, as the belt keeps moving, but you can see the man screaming. But the thing that gets me watching out of the corner of my eyes is the gross way this man's finger is bent backwards as his hand goes through the rollers. Uuugghghhghhh.