Funeral Blues/Don't Look Now

Found on YouTube courtesy of a user called Applemask, who has some great PIFs in his collection. (Edit: He's definitely male, and has made a guest appearance on this site. Thank you, Applemask!) Both of these are 1990s PIFs about speeding, and they're profiled on the Think! website.

"Funeral Blues" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPnjeVHYQBM&mode=related&search) shows video footage of children who were later killed by speeding drivers in residential areas, with a soundtrack of John Hannah reading WH Auden's poem of the same name as featured in Four Weddings and a Funeral. As Applemask says, the PIF is genuinely harrowing, and horribly sad when you think that those children never grew up. I remember that the mother of one of the children featured in this PIF was interviewed on the BBC programme 999, but not what she said. Here's what the Think! website says about "Funeral Blues":

'Funeral Blues'
£2m TV and radio campaign - May 1996
£0.75m TV, radio and cinema
campaign - Sept 1996

Creative treatment
Three television commercials (one 90s, two 40s) featuring home video footage of young children who were later knocked down and killed in residential areas. Poetry readings about loss and grief (including the reading of W H Auden's poem from the film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral') reinforce the emotive nature of the video footage. In six radio commercials family members of the victims talk about the loss they have experienced and appeal directly to motorists to check their speed. Advertising carried the endline 'At times we all drive a bit too fast' 'Kill Your Speed'. The Kill your speed 'hand symbol' was designed and used for the first time on the television advertisements and publicity literature

Advertising objective
Show drivers that it could happen to them. The cynicism with which some drivers regard 'unreal' advertising must be suspended because it really did happen to these children and the drivers involved. Convince all drivers that going 'a little too fast' is unacceptable. Force them to recognise the seriousness of speeding in urban areas and their personal responsibility not to drive too fast. Encourage drivers to think about the long-term implications of road traffic accidents. Use of radio to reach drivers in their cars.

If I can find the other two PIFs from this campaign, I will. I didn't know that was the first use of the "Kill your speed" hand logo, but I agree with Applemask that it's a fabulous piece of animation. "Funeral Blues" was later followed by "Procedures", which also showed video footage of children killed by speeding drivers, but this time with a voiceover of a man solemnly reciting the official guidelines for when a police officer has to break the news to a victim's family after a gruesome road death. Another one for me to try and get hold of.

"Don't Look Now" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex5nppYgjYk&mode=related&search) is a year older, from 1995. A little girl is merrily frolicking in the school playground but, she informs the viewer, YOU are going to kill her! Why? You'll kill her because you overslept, you'll kill her "for an appointment", and without even thinking about it. At the very end we see her as a driver sees her from their car - right before running her over. But she ends on the more positive note "You're going to kill me UNLESS YOU KILL YOUR SPEED", and we'd rather do that instead, wouldn't we? This one still has the "Safety on the Move" logo at the end, so I would assume its use ended in 1995 or early 1996 (and was partially replaced by the "Kill Your Speed" hand sign.) However, the YouTube video is probably a short version: I seem to remember that the original was longer than that. Which is probably why she'll be killed by a driver who overslept AFTER she's been to school. Funny that.

And the review from the Think! site:

'Don't Look Now'
£1.4m TV campaign, May 1995
£1.1m TV, radio and press, Sept 1995
£220,000 radio campaign, Feb 1996

The black and white television commercial portrays a young schoolgirl at home and on her way to school. A child's voice-over tells drivers 'You're going to kill me...' followed by trivial excuses people give for driving too fast... '...because you're late for a meeting/to keep up with the traffic'. In the last frame she is seen through a windscreen by a driver who cannot stop in time. National press advertisements and radio commercials featuring children's voices reinforce the excuses theme. Radio was used successfully for the first time to bring the message to drivers in their cars.