Campaigns

So after my last post about signage, I'll come into what sparked that discussion. you know that stuff only comes into existence when someone out there acknowledges that there is some kind of a need for it. When the need is some kind of "awareness", that would mean that someone acknowledges based on personal knowledge or some kind of study or statistic that there is a wide need for people to know that something needs to be known. I know I'm smarter than the average bear, but sometimes, I really wonder about people when I look at some of the campaigns that have been run over the course of history for people to know something. Realize that these are things upon which local, state, and/or federal governments have spent millions of dollars. People toss around the phrase millions of dollars like it's nothing, but I personally don't have millions of dollars, and most of what they're putting out people have got to know about by now. I'm talking about things like:

Do Not Litter

 

I see trash on the side of the road, sure. I've never put any there myself because I know better, but clearly some people don't understand this concept to the extent that things like this have to be conducted every once in awhile to make them aware that they shouldn't toss that cup out their car window. And don't get me started on smokers tossing their butts all over the freaking place.

Thing is that when someone is going to do something, they're going to do it no matter what you tell them about benefits or penalties. It's a case of laws only affecting those who follow them, and really, those who litter will do it no matter what you threaten. I remember in the 80s there was a song (that for some reason, the Engineer will still sing if you queue him up just right) about litterbugs. You can watch the Donald Duck cartoon short containing it right here for now.

That's a lot of money just put out there just to tell people the same thing we've been telling them since kindergarten. Put your trash in the trash can.

Buckle Your Seat Belt

Back in the 80s, again, there was a big push for buckling your seat belt because all the studies had finally come back showing everyone that wearing a seat belt was safer than not wearing one. When I was in school, something called a swatch was popular, so they came out with these seat belt looking bracelets they referred to as sbatches. I tried to find an image, but no dice.

Of course, there are signs everywhere:

And of course, there was a music video going way, way back. Who can't recite some version of the lyrics for "Buckle Up For Safety"?

Again, we're talking about millions upon millions of dollars here spent to tell people to buckle their seat belts. Once upon a time, seat belts weren't commonly worn, and some cars didn't even have them. Today, however, they are required in every vehicle and buckling up is the law in every state (probably, I'm not a lawyer). Yet, we still have to put out all this dough to remind people to buckle their seat belts. The generation that didn't have seat belts laws from the moment they started driving is dwindling, but I'll bet we're stuck with this campaign expenditure for years to come.

Abstinence

This applies to so very many things. Millions spent on sex education (sex being something that our species has successfully navigated for thousands of years (for the creationists) and millions of years (for the evolutionists)). They promote awareness that not having sex will prevent sexually transmitted diseases:

Actually, this one's much better.

Good time girls... heh, heh. Anyway, seems obvious, but ok. 

My personal favorite is the promotion of abstinence to prevent pregnancy. This campaign rests on the very obvious notion that not having sex will not get you pregnant. People pays tons of money to get this message out there, and have lots and lots of support to do so.

Apparently, some people found it too obvious to fund.

Maybe I'm just jaded about it, but you know, if you know the least bit about how reproduction works in any mammal, you know it takes two of them doing something to make another, so making sure that everyone is aware that sex can create children seems like a campaign to make everyone aware that grass is most commonly green and roads are to drive on. (I'll bet there's a campaign out there somewhere about not letting kids play on highways.)

I could only find signs giving them the right of way.

Here's the thing, though, that all those people throwing all that money around miss. In THAT moment, the brain chemistry warps right out of the reason zone to where all logic ceases to function, and that's why when explanations are demanded, the only thing you get back is "It just happened." Unfortunately, the campaign can't address that.

Equality / Inclusion

This was about the only generic one I could find.

Talk about big category. I googled both equality and inclusion, and got a zillion different things that people want YOU to be aware of so they can be included and equalized. Two companies I've worked for have people hired for this one purpose: to ensure that everyone feels equal and so the company adheres to whatever policies it put in place to make sure the government and the myriad of groups out there know they accept everyone.

Unlike the previous entries, I can understand that there are a lot of people out there who hold certain prejudices against other people to the point that people with a variety of personal characteristics feel excluded, but the fact that so very organizations have so much traction points to just how sad our society really is. The other side of the coin is that these groups make it their mission to not only make sure everyone likes them and their cause, but also makes sure no one ever says a foul word about anyone they cover. This applies not only to direct insults, but words that they think might possibly apply to them or those that they've heard before in reference to them.

A direct example is if you call something retarded. Somewhere, someone just got offended that I placed that word in this article and will tear me up one side and down the other just for it being there when all I've done so far is mention it as a sensitive word. Now, ritard is a musical term. It's based on the italian word ritardo that means delay. In music, it means to gradually slow something down. The spelling retard is actually French  and means exactly the same thing. Over time in English, it has also come to mean stupid and in reference to a person, it is considered an insult.

Here's the thing. It wasn't always that way. If a person was retarded, it simply meant they were delayed, which is actually a valid assessment of their mental state, since the people to whom that term is usually applied are actually developmentally delayed (the politically correct term at this point). As these things tend to go, the word has degenerated into what it is to where it is better not applied to people at all since it is generally taken as an insult, and honestly, it generally is.

What's my point? It's kind of like being too sensitive. If someone uses the term "retarded" to apply to a thing they're engaged in, they aren't insulting a group of people. That group would argue it should not be used at all, but seriously, you can't control anyone's language. I think that's another campaign entirely.

Why do I find this sort of thing pointless? It's a matter of "why can't we all just get along?" I don't have any problem with anyone, and I really don't care about who you are or what you're doing as long as you're not forcing your agenda on me. Just be a person and let me be me, and we'll be fine. If everyone approached everyone else with an open mind, the world could save a lot of money on "let's be excellent" campaigns.

Drugs

I'll finish out with this one.

In the 80s, again, it was Nancy Reagan that made "Just Say No To Drugs" her mission. Everyone got to know "Just Say No," and these days, it's more of a joke than anything, yet, the campaigns and money spent on anti-drug stuff is as high as ever. How necessary is it? Well, I suppose the world has a very short memory when it comes to everything under the sun. The day changes and suddenly everyone forgets what they learned yesterday, so it becomes a constant battle to re-educate people on what is a bad drug.

You can never truly say no to drugs because pharmaceuticals are legal drugs. Truly saying no to all drugs means no more Tylenol for you. Yes, yes, it's no to the illegal or dangerous ones, but you know what the Just Say No campaign accomplished? It educated everyone about the existence of drugs, so the curious types sought them out having made aware of stuff that they may never have heard of otherwise.

That little ad up there lets you know about five drugs, but little else. If you research what these things are, you might or might not be able to identify them when they arise. But it is my understanding of these things that you'll end up primarily doing said drugs under two circumstances: socially with friends which is where that brain chemistry thing starts acting up again or you're already there and actively seeking them in which case you are past saying no to anything.

In the end, why does this or any other campaign really exist? Awareness. Someone decided that someone needed to do something to make sure people knew about some aspect of all of this. Usually, it's in response to some big horrific tragedy that would never have happened had the person involved only known better at the time, so people seek to make sure everyone knows what their loved one didn't.

I suppose there is a sort of catch to my list. I say these things are unnecessary because they should all be very obvious to everyone. But they're obvious to everyone because of all these awareness campaigns. I, personally, am kind of tired of hearing about them all the time, and think the money could be better spent on something else (like, perhaps, world hunger or education). Education already includes bits about drugs and sex and seat belts and litter. I guess I think it's sad that it must be drilled into our heads for the rest of our lives, and even then, people still won't get it.