We’ve had some famous PSAs on tv: the “Crying Indian,” “This is your brain on drugs,” Smokey the Bear, and any of the “The More You Know” 
PSAs shown on NBC. They’re memorable because they’re either catchy or show an important message that touches people’s hearts.
If you could make your own CPS PSA, what would your topic be? And what would you do? Budget is no object so you can have any director you want, any set you want.
Would you emphasize extended rear-facing? Is your cause extended harnessing? Or are you a booster “booster?” What would your goal be—to raise awareness, educate, or raise money to fund purchases of seats?
Hit us with your best ideas!
These are awesome ideas! I wish I did have something to give away, but, alas, I don’t.
Mine would be for “SNUG AS A HUG.” It drives me nuts to see children in their $300 car seats, wearing puffy jackets and in harnesses that are barely touching them. My PSA would start with one of those expensive dummy dolls you work with during certification, or a crash test dummy, wearing said puffy jacket and loosely harnessed. The voiceover would say, “The way the harness fits when you start the car is the way it would hold your child at impact,” and have slow-motion crash test video of the dummy flying out of the seat in a crash. Linger on shot of empty jacket, empty seat. Sound fx: sirens and emergency responder/dispatch chatter. Voiceover: Motor vehicle crashes are the #1 cause of injury and death for children under 6. Cut to shot of real child, getting into car seat, being buckled in by loving parent, harness tightened till there is no slack, parent kisses adorably happy child. Voiceover: “Make sure your children are securely fastened in their car seats, with no puffy coats. Hold your child as snug as a hug, in your arms and in the car seat. They’re your most precious cargo… This message brought to you by the Car Seat Poncho — the safe, easy way to keep your child warm in the car seat.”
I would make one that informed people about how absolutely unsafe it is to place an infant seat on the top of the upper basket of the grocery cart. I actually witnessed one that fell off of the cart and crashed to the ground — it was absolutely horrifying to me. I don’t know if people don’t read that in their manuals or just choose to ignore it cause they don’t want to take up the space in their cart or if they are just ignorant, but the sheer numbers of people that do this is unbelievable to me! And an accident such as I witnessed was SO preventable!
I haven’t really thought about video PSAs, but I’ve wanted to make a print ad for a long time. There would be a photo of a little kid dressed up in his dad’s way-too-big suit. The caption would say “wearing dad’s suit: adorable.” Then there would be a photo of the kid sitting in the car, wearing an ill-fitting seatbelt. That caption would say “wearing dad’s seatbelt: deadly.” That could be translated to video pretty easily. Do I win a prize? ;p