Comments on: WorkSafe Victoria tries humour in safety advertising

By: WorkSafe’s approach to marketing safety to teenagers revealed « SafetyAtWorkBlog

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 22:01:00 +0000

[…] government, hazards, media, OHS, research, safety, standards, WorkCover, WorkSafe, young Two articles in two days concerning OHS advertising may seem a little much but in 2008 Australia’s […]

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:04:43 +0000

It’s easy to knock WorkCover Vic for these adds because they don’t present some idealised image of workers and supervisors. They also received criticism for their video of the public being involved in an fake “electrocution” and further back for their homecoming series. Thank god they didn’t give in to all the criticism but kept of plugging away. The purpose of the ads is not to provide some politically correct view of the workplace or of trying to be all things to all people they are about drawing attention to how choices made in a moment can result in serious injury and to do so in 30 – 45 seconds.

I’ve watched all of the ads in this series (http://www.youtube.com/user/worksafevictoria) and can relate to each one of them and I think they get the message across in a novel and entertaining way that is likely to be remembered.

What other regulator in the country is doing anything similar?

Good on you, WorkCover Vic

By: Kevin Jones

Kevin Jones — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 07:42:30 +0000

In reply to Andrea Madeley. Andrea, he was recently in Australia, I think, for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. I missed him.

By: Andrea Madeley

Andrea Madeley — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 07:31:20 +0000

Yes I have to agree, the campaign points the finger at the employee rather than failed systems … but I have to say Mark Thomas’ videos are brilliant! I watched all 3 parts and so much of what he said was bang on. He’s my new hero.

By: Bette Phillips

Bette Phillips — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:44:01 +0000

Sadly once again in this campaign the worker looks like the “dork” maybe there is a need to support workers for the opinions and thoughts about safer working places.

Interestingly this campaign reflects one we did some years ago..but it had a message and how safer workplaces could save young lives..and an outcome…followed by an interview with the mother of the young man who died.

We need to see that workers are not dorks but human beings who want to go to work and come home safely.

By: Kevin Jones

Kevin Jones — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:25:34 +0000

In reply to Spectator.

Spectator, I take your point but I find it hard to discern the target market for the latest ad.

One of the frustrations with OHS promotion is that the owners or designers rarely state what they actually want to achieve. Raising awareness is a valid aim but cannot be the only aim. At some point action needs to be taken.

The annual reports of OHS regulators sometimes have data about advertising campaigns but rarely is the media strategy published, or the success measured. I think WorkSafe would argue that a media strategy needs to be seen in the broader context of its inspection and enforcement policies, and this may be the case, but any macro-startegy is usually described in macro-terms and those are usually inexact injury claims data.

OHS professionals arenot the target market but the discussion of the ads by us gives the campaign more “air”. Perhaps I should send WorkSafe an invoice for social media sevices?

By: Spectator

Spectator — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:14:12 +0000

OHS professionals being uncertain about a regulator’s campaign is not news, in fact it’s traditional. From memory the same thing happened with homecomings.

OHS professionals and consultants are not the target audience. The hard to reach audiences are workers at high risk, often they are on the margins. Part time, contract, labour hire, and so on. The people are often young workers, women, first-generation Australians.

Show me a 25 yr-old female Somali OHS consultant’s opinion on the campaign? Or the results of the focus group testing?