The use of gruesome and humorous propaganda for accident prevention / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946.
Date:
[1936?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The use of gruesome and humorous propaganda for accident prevention / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    which gallop so entertainingly down below are your cows. Until you have looked into the matter you simply can’t imagine what goes on inside a galloping cow. Anyway, it turns the farmer sour and pilots who have cause to seek his aid afterwards may find him lacking in the milk of human kindness.” THE ABUSE OF LEVITY A certain amount of amusement is well recognized as an aid to interest in school instruction. But nowadays there is too often a ten¬ dency to exaggerate the need for levity when information is imparted, especially in the more popular newspapers. The modern journalist seems—in my view quite wrongly—to think that a serious article must be made amusing by the introduction of often ridiculous captions and of often irrelevant thumb-nail sketches, and that without such supposed attractions the article will never be read by the masses. So, too, in propaganda for accident prevention, although amusement has a certain value, it must not be overdone. CONCLUSION Neither amusement nor fear can be regarded as sufficient for accident prevention. Each must be used in moderation. The most that these feelings can do alone is to instil a memory of a dangerous situation and of its effects. Alone they do not pretend to detail the rules of conduct which require to be observed for the avoidance of accident. Nor alone can they always indicate the best reasons which can be advanced for such avoidance. The cultivation of interest, worth-whileness and a sense of duty are essential in all learning, but to be effective they cannot solely rest either on fear or on amusement. Printed in Great Britain by The Shenval Press, Ltd., 58 Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C.t