Just like the anti-smoking ads, Worksafe ads are seeming more shocking with ad creators intent on leaving an imprint.

These ads are not easy on the eye, or even neutral. They are very hard to focus on, to look at. Particularly, the first one grabs you, as one pictures the right eye socket that was probably once with a dangling eyeball stitched up by modern surgery.

The second picture is still hard hitting but somewhat softer, perhaps a buffer in-between two other incredibly aesthetically unappealing ads.

Yet its text shouts out a familiar cry, “I thought I’d look stupid if I asked AGAIN.” Key word there again in bold.  This rings bells with those of us who weren’t afraid to ask the first time (see third picture) but too scared to look stupid by repeating a question.

And the third? Gruesome, yet realistic.

WorkCover ads can often use the emotive approach; inducing sympathy as a young family finds out its beloved papa has had a fatal accident at work or something like that but these ads are not inducing a kind of “think of your primary school aged daughter” or “My husband is never going to come home for dinner” approach but a much more personal one.

These ads really induce an adverse reaction, a natural response to look away. That’s a bad thing for this campaign because even though a consumer may not choose to look back, these images are unforgettable, and not in a kind of je ne sais quoi way either.

Advertising Agency: Grey, Melbourne, Australia
Creative Director: Nigel Dawson
Art Director: Peter Becker
Copywriter: Nigel Dawson
Photographer: Hugh Peachey
Prosthetics and Effects: Nic Dorning
Published: October 2008

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