The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Author

By The Drum Team, Editorial

June 24, 2011 | 2 min read

With the announcement by the Government of the closure of the Central Office of Information, The Drum takes a look at some of the classic public information films it created through out the decades.

Released in 1975 as a parody of Match of the Day, this film warned the public about the dangers of Pick Pocketing.

Warning of the dangers of drink driving and directed by film maker Tony Kaye, this campaign featured one continuous shot of a little girl getting more distressed while listening to her mother shout at her father after killing a child while drink driving.

We had to include a ‘Charlie Say’s campaign as they were arguably the most memorable from the COI. Here’s Charlie Says to tell mummy if you see a box of matches lying around.

Darth Vader actor David Prowse is the iconic ‘Green Cross Code Man’, who offered road safety advice to school children in the seventies.

Beginning in 1971 and fronted by Top of the Pops presenter and radio DJ Sir Jimmy Saville, the 'Clunk Click Every Trip campaign' was once of the COI’s longest running, most memorable and oft' quoted campaigns over the years.

We can't imagine Wayne Rooney doing this, but Newcastle striker helping children to cross the road and teaching them the Green Cross Code was a hugely successful campaign in 1976.

In an advert reminiscent of the opening of classic horror Don’t Look Now, this 1979 COI film warns parents about the dangers of children playing near garden ponds. Creepy. Here’s a public information film from 1990 featuring TV chief Keith Floyd demonstrating what not to do in the event of a chip pan fire.

Here Playschool presenter Derek Griffiths warns about bike theft and what should be done should someone steal yours.

The Blue Streak Rocket – a public information film about a British space rocket – we kid you not!

Which COI Public Information films do you remember? Tell us below!

Coi

More from Coi

View all