The art of the public information ad

Bring back the Tufty Club. Bring back the Green Cross Code. Bring back ‘Charley says’. Bring back ‘Only a fool breaks the two-second rule’. Bring back Vinnie Jones and ‘Stayin’ Alive’. Bring back the Country Code and ‘Always take your litter home’. Bring back public information films. Bring back the Central Office of Information.

For younger readers, I probably need to explain what the hell I am talking about.

Tufty was created for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, and was an implausibly sensible young squirrel whose behaviour (in contrast to the foolish antics of the louche Willy Weasel) gave lessons to children on road sense. At its height, the Tufty Club had two million members. The Green Cross Code was intended for older children, and showed good behaviour being enforced by the Green Cross Man in the person of Dave Prowse, later to find greater fame in the role of Darth Vader (in body not in voice — as no plausible arch-villain can ever have a strong Bristolian accent). Charley was an animated cat whose sage advice, delivered in a series of miaows, was translated by his young owner with the prefix ‘Charley says’. Usually this involved exhorting children to ‘tell your mummy’ before planning anything more dangerous than sitting in a chair.

The interesting insight here was that, while children often won’t listen to a word their parents say, they become highly obedient when the figure of authority is a 6ft 7in Bristolian or a hastily drawn cat. It is a central plank of behavioural science that the person who delivers a message has a hugely disproportionate effect on how we respond. (Chris Whitty and Jonathan Van-Tam are perfect messengers in this regard for their ingenuousness, as was Ian McDonald during the Falklands War. All seem like the kind of people who, had they discovered the family drinks cabinet unlocked while they were teenagers, would have alerted their parents to the potential security breach.)