As a kid that grew up in the 80s in the UK and caught the tail end of the educational videos mentioned in the article - the government of the day did use brutal imagery to try to instil fear in kids back then.
I remember explicit imagery of burns from fireworks and … a really nasty “educational” video about a kid who tried to rescue a frisbee from an electricity substation that then dies of electrocution.
We had also had a couple of decades of low-effort brutalist city-centre architecture by then, and our dull, dark, drab, grey weather complements the dull, dark, drab grey concrete to make a dull, dark, drab grey life.
From what I recall, the economy was in the toilet at the time too, there were rolling blackouts, general strikes and all manner of things just falling apart.
> I remember explicit imagery of burns from fireworks and … a really nasty “educational” video about a kid who tried to rescue a frisbee from an electricity substation that then dies of electrocution.
JIMMY!!! It was called Play Safe [1].
I’m not British but these videos were parodied in How TV Ruined Your Life by Charlie Brooker (creator of Black Mirror) so now they hold a special place in my heart. Wish I had the nostalgia for them though, they seem wonderful!
> From what I recall, the economy was in the toilet at the time too, there were rolling blackouts, general strikes and all manner of things just falling apart.
That's right, except the bit about "general strikes". There were flying pickets: workers would travel across the country to support strikes by workers in other industries, rather like football fans. But to the best of my knowledge, the only General Strike in the UK happened in 1926.
I have seen industrial training films from the 60s/70s/80s and they are horrifyingly/hilariously brutal. The 'best' one had some having someone having their (fake!) arm graphically torn off by a spinning lathe. I guess it got the message across though.
I remember explicit imagery of burns from fireworks and … a really nasty “educational” video about a kid who tried to rescue a frisbee from an electricity substation that then dies of electrocution.
We had also had a couple of decades of low-effort brutalist city-centre architecture by then, and our dull, dark, drab, grey weather complements the dull, dark, drab grey concrete to make a dull, dark, drab grey life.
From what I recall, the economy was in the toilet at the time too, there were rolling blackouts, general strikes and all manner of things just falling apart.