Every so often in the UK we have adverts that warn us to wear seatbelts, not to speed, not to drink and drive, and so on. There’s one example (you can see it here) that seems to be regarded as the most famous, or the most effective, the most impacting. It features a woman driving her car with her daughter in the passenger seat and her son in the back. She’s clearly being tailed by an ominous white van and she keeps glancing back and into the mirror to see it, and the narrator intones, “Like most victims, Julie knew her killer.” Watching in the mirror, Julie is relieved to see the van turn away from their route. But as her eyes focus ahead of her again, she realises what is about to happen, and the car collides with another in front of her. The narrator says, “It was her son, who was sitting behind her without a seatbelt.” The son is relatively unharmed, and the narrator finishes, “After crushing her to death, he sat back down.”

I find it interesting that in the society we inhabit, which is based entirely upon egoism - do this or I’ll spank you; do this or they’ll put you in prison; do this or He’ll send you to Hell; forget everyone else, do this or it’ll be bad for you - the most affecting warning in this case is one that says, “do this or you’ll hurt somebody else.”

I don’t have any conclusions to draw from this. I just find it interesting.

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