@kate66061 - It definitely was an eerie commercial albeit a very powerful message. If anyone suspects child abuse or neglect, the Child Help USA has a site with a toll-free helpline and other information to help prevent and/or report child abuse or neglect. Children (and animals) do NOT have a voice so that we need to be their voice. Thanks for posting the video!
i was born in 1967 my childhood years were the decade of the 70's, and i was being physically abused everyday of my life by my mother's then live in boyfriend whom she later married and the abuse still continued, why nothing was being done about it , because it was the 70's , and things were different back then , it was different time , a time of hush, hush, as some people put it.
I think the ad reflects the time when it was made. They weren't going to show the actual physical act of abuse. That was too strong. Instead, the focused more on the neglect. The house is empty. Nobody is home and there is no adult to check in the activities of the children. That's why the record player is turning. Sure, the message could have been stronger, but this topic was taboo and these PSAs were trying to open the conversation.
OMG! I remember this commercial back in the day when it was first shown on TV. Good grief!! I must be gettin' old! The bad thing is, all the so called "systems" that are in place now that look out for the "best interest of the child" simply don't work. I've watched quite a few vids(here on You-Tube) where kids get jerked from the parents and placed in foster care and end up dead in the end.Makes you wonder if we're really doing the right thing today doesn't it??Too bad the kids end up suffering.
While child abuse, historically, has always been a concern among humanity on an individual basis, it didn't really become a public concern among Americans until around 1968, when "The Battered Child" by Drs. C. Henry Kempe and Ray E. Heffer came on the market. The book was a landmark in pushing the "hush-hush"subject of child abuse into the public's eye, making people more aware of how widespread the problem was and still is.
Kinda funny though...it was the 70's when child abuse was on the rise. Could it have been because of women's lib taking off and women starting to work outside of the home?
Sounds to me women's lib bit off more than they could chew in the 70's..cause they couldn't handle a career and bringing up their kids at the same time.
Now...we treat our cars and animals better than our kids.
@texasghost The issue was that nobody back then spoke about it. I remember promotions for the films "Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night" and "When She Was Bad" both excellent films on the subject from the late seventies and the point both films tried to drive home was the naivety of society at that time to an increasing problem that was occurring behind closed doors throughout the country.
@texasghost Think you might have it backwards historically. Child abuse wasn't on the rise in the 70's, but the wall of secrecy around it was cracking. Whether that veil was being lifted by media in our ever shrinking world (remember the real horrors of war for the first time in Vietnam on our evening newscasts), or it was because of Women's Lib and not being afraid to stand up to your no longer dominant but equal partner. The 70's wasn't the start of it, child labor laws from 1900's prove that.
The one thinig i still don't get about this ad is what does a child's record and a sweep through an empty house have to do with child abuse? Is it maybe to emphasize that you can't always tell from outward looks just what's going on inside the family-the sweep shows a seemingly ordinary house of a seemingly ordiinary family where child abuse was probably happening, but you can't tell that just from the outward looks of the house or the family. Is that perhaps the message of the ad?
@spy4863 I always thought it had to do with the parents having maybe killed the kids or they were in the hospital from being beat up and the house was empty..
@RetroGoop That's a good point! I remember just a handful of child abuse ads from the 70's and 80's. I do like this ad, and thanks for postinf it! I seem to remember a similiar chiild abuse ad from about the same time-I don't know, it may have been this ad. I just remember a camera sweeping through a house, and a VO talking about child abuse and the end shot focusing on a child's room, but I seem to remember something about an empty child's chair, and a doll or stuffed toy dropping on the floor.
@RetroGoop I think I can understand why this ad comes off so creepy. The child abuse narrative, the shaky camera, the toy piano music, the empty house, the "point-of-view" camera angle, the camera sweep through the house, looking in every room, building up tension, as if something bad is about to happen, and finally climaxing in a child's upper bedroom, a very vunerable place in the house. All these are techniques used by horror film directors to build suspense. Still, I like this ad anyway.
@spy4863 "maybe to emphasize that you can't always tell from outward looks just what's going on inside the family-the sweep shows a seemingly ordinary house of a seemingly ordiinary family where child abuse was probably happening, but you can't tell that just from the outward looks of the house or the family. Is that perhaps the message of the ad?"
Thats the impression I got. And I speak from experience. My mother was an abusive psychotic, but outwardly people thought she was a saint.
@ghostrepublic I'm sorry to hear that, and glad to hear your opinion. I was sexually abused by my grandfather, but not in a physically hurtful way, and I've forgiven him for it, because he was a wonderful person. I have to admit , I too would be fooled by such a seemimgly ordinary houise and family, because abusers and the abused can do a pretty good job of covering up what 's really going on. And even though I've read about some of theigs to look for, I'd probably still miss them.
@spy4863 My mother was good at covering up. When I tried to tell her friends how she abused us kids, hoping they could do something about it, theyd say "what are you talking about? Your mother is so nice!" Though our neighbors could hear her and would say "your mother sure does yell alot" & "your mom sure is mean". It was bittersweet that the neighbors knew. Sweet because someone outside the family knew how crazy she was. Bitter because there was nothing they would or could do about it.
@ghostrepublic I know a woman who married a man after being told by her friends and family that he was a child molester. She married him and he molested all of her children, 3 boys and one girl. The girl, my ex-wife, told me she was sexually threatened and chased from 2 until 16 years old. She told me she told her mother but her mother wouldnt do anything to stop her husband until the police set up a sting. And what did her mom say afterwards, "Who's gonna take care of us now."
@ghostrepublic That always drove me nuts when I'd tell someone about my mom and they'd say, "but she's always nice when I'm over there," as if she'd be her usual abusive a-hole self when company's over.
It was kind of vindicating that she knew she was wrong though, or else she would have done it in front of other people.
@NotADood Yep. My mother was on her BEST, nicest behavior when outsiders were around. The fact that my mother was so good at her masquerade, her charade, to all outsiders of the immediate family told me that 1) she was well aware of her psychotic behavior, and 2) she knew how and when to control it. Its kind of heartbreaking as I think I could MAYBE understand if she didnt know what she was doing or how to control it. But she did know what she was doing and she knew how to control it.
@ghostrepublic Sounds like my grandmother too, even today at 93 when outsiders come to visit, she can put on such a nice act, but when it's just us...*cringe*. Nightmare is the definition of her.
@AlvinaZane You have a very good point. I didn't even notice the missing railing piece until you pointed it out. I grew up in the 70's and at that time nobody even gave a second thought to such safety measures like bike helmets, lead paint and cribs with wife bars wide enough for a baby to slip their head through. We weren't stupid or unaware of safety measures, it's just that sometimes it only takes one accident to point out potential azards to people. Thanks for your safety conscious point.
That's Mason Adams doing the narrating. He was best known for the Smuckers TV commercials. He also did a stint of acting on a 70's TV show called...Lou Grant.
the child/ children are invisible, therefore when an outsider comes into the home, they see nothing, but get an eerie feeling
kate66061 1 month ago
@kate66061 - It definitely was an eerie commercial albeit a very powerful message. If anyone suspects child abuse or neglect, the Child Help USA has a site with a toll-free helpline and other information to help prevent and/or report child abuse or neglect. Children (and animals) do NOT have a voice so that we need to be their voice. Thanks for posting the video!
Jannsmith 6 days ago
perhaps its a child walking back into thier house, now older the house being abandoned and left how it was, remembering thier past.
kate66061 1 month ago
i was born in 1967 my childhood years were the decade of the 70's, and i was being physically abused everyday of my life by my mother's then live in boyfriend whom she later married and the abuse still continued, why nothing was being done about it , because it was the 70's , and things were different back then , it was different time , a time of hush, hush, as some people put it.
formerbritneyfan 3 months ago
I was born in 1975
grettagrids 4 months ago
I think the ad reflects the time when it was made. They weren't going to show the actual physical act of abuse. That was too strong. Instead, the focused more on the neglect. The house is empty. Nobody is home and there is no adult to check in the activities of the children. That's why the record player is turning. Sure, the message could have been stronger, but this topic was taboo and these PSAs were trying to open the conversation.
drdku 5 months ago
A little strange but not really all that creepy...
alwrig 5 months ago
A lot of these PSAs back then had that follow-cam technique that helped make it creepier than it would have been otherwise.
bagnumberthree 5 months ago
OMG! I remember this commercial back in the day when it was first shown on TV. Good grief!! I must be gettin' old! The bad thing is, all the so called "systems" that are in place now that look out for the "best interest of the child" simply don't work. I've watched quite a few vids(here on You-Tube) where kids get jerked from the parents and placed in foster care and end up dead in the end.Makes you wonder if we're really doing the right thing today doesn't it??Too bad the kids end up suffering.
da959 6 months ago
While child abuse, historically, has always been a concern among humanity on an individual basis, it didn't really become a public concern among Americans until around 1968, when "The Battered Child" by Drs. C. Henry Kempe and Ray E. Heffer came on the market. The book was a landmark in pushing the "hush-hush"subject of child abuse into the public's eye, making people more aware of how widespread the problem was and still is.
spy4863 6 months ago
Dana Awtry is a child molester
6969666z 6 months ago
Kinda funny though...it was the 70's when child abuse was on the rise. Could it have been because of women's lib taking off and women starting to work outside of the home?
Sounds to me women's lib bit off more than they could chew in the 70's..cause they couldn't handle a career and bringing up their kids at the same time.
Now...we treat our cars and animals better than our kids.
texasghost 7 months ago
@texasghost The issue was that nobody back then spoke about it. I remember promotions for the films "Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night" and "When She Was Bad" both excellent films on the subject from the late seventies and the point both films tried to drive home was the naivety of society at that time to an increasing problem that was occurring behind closed doors throughout the country.
jldraw 6 months ago
@texasghost Think you might have it backwards historically. Child abuse wasn't on the rise in the 70's, but the wall of secrecy around it was cracking. Whether that veil was being lifted by media in our ever shrinking world (remember the real horrors of war for the first time in Vietnam on our evening newscasts), or it was because of Women's Lib and not being afraid to stand up to your no longer dominant but equal partner. The 70's wasn't the start of it, child labor laws from 1900's prove that.
Swampbuggy61 1 month ago
I don't know why... But I get the feeling something's wrong....
GoobaTheGorilla 9 months ago 15
The one thinig i still don't get about this ad is what does a child's record and a sweep through an empty house have to do with child abuse? Is it maybe to emphasize that you can't always tell from outward looks just what's going on inside the family-the sweep shows a seemingly ordinary house of a seemingly ordiinary family where child abuse was probably happening, but you can't tell that just from the outward looks of the house or the family. Is that perhaps the message of the ad?
spy4863 1 year ago
@spy4863 I always thought it had to do with the parents having maybe killed the kids or they were in the hospital from being beat up and the house was empty..
RetroGoop 1 year ago 3
@RetroGoop That's a good point! I remember just a handful of child abuse ads from the 70's and 80's. I do like this ad, and thanks for postinf it! I seem to remember a similiar chiild abuse ad from about the same time-I don't know, it may have been this ad. I just remember a camera sweeping through a house, and a VO talking about child abuse and the end shot focusing on a child's room, but I seem to remember something about an empty child's chair, and a doll or stuffed toy dropping on the floor.
spy4863 1 year ago
@RetroGoop I think I can understand why this ad comes off so creepy. The child abuse narrative, the shaky camera, the toy piano music, the empty house, the "point-of-view" camera angle, the camera sweep through the house, looking in every room, building up tension, as if something bad is about to happen, and finally climaxing in a child's upper bedroom, a very vunerable place in the house. All these are techniques used by horror film directors to build suspense. Still, I like this ad anyway.
spy4863 4 months ago
@RetroGoop Yeah that's my take on it...think about it, WHERE is the child?
TheBookWorm1718 3 months ago
@spy4863 probably.
reidrules45 7 months ago
i love you
6969666z 6 months ago
@spy4863 "maybe to emphasize that you can't always tell from outward looks just what's going on inside the family-the sweep shows a seemingly ordinary house of a seemingly ordiinary family where child abuse was probably happening, but you can't tell that just from the outward looks of the house or the family. Is that perhaps the message of the ad?"
Thats the impression I got. And I speak from experience. My mother was an abusive psychotic, but outwardly people thought she was a saint.
ghostrepublic 5 months ago
@ghostrepublic I'm sorry to hear that, and glad to hear your opinion. I was sexually abused by my grandfather, but not in a physically hurtful way, and I've forgiven him for it, because he was a wonderful person. I have to admit , I too would be fooled by such a seemimgly ordinary houise and family, because abusers and the abused can do a pretty good job of covering up what 's really going on. And even though I've read about some of theigs to look for, I'd probably still miss them.
spy4863 5 months ago
@spy4863 My mother was good at covering up. When I tried to tell her friends how she abused us kids, hoping they could do something about it, theyd say "what are you talking about? Your mother is so nice!" Though our neighbors could hear her and would say "your mother sure does yell alot" & "your mom sure is mean". It was bittersweet that the neighbors knew. Sweet because someone outside the family knew how crazy she was. Bitter because there was nothing they would or could do about it.
ghostrepublic 5 months ago
@ghostrepublic I know a woman who married a man after being told by her friends and family that he was a child molester. She married him and he molested all of her children, 3 boys and one girl. The girl, my ex-wife, told me she was sexually threatened and chased from 2 until 16 years old. She told me she told her mother but her mother wouldnt do anything to stop her husband until the police set up a sting. And what did her mom say afterwards, "Who's gonna take care of us now."
PaulGreen11 5 months ago
@ghostrepublic That always drove me nuts when I'd tell someone about my mom and they'd say, "but she's always nice when I'm over there," as if she'd be her usual abusive a-hole self when company's over.
It was kind of vindicating that she knew she was wrong though, or else she would have done it in front of other people.
NotADood 4 months ago
@NotADood Yep. My mother was on her BEST, nicest behavior when outsiders were around. The fact that my mother was so good at her masquerade, her charade, to all outsiders of the immediate family told me that 1) she was well aware of her psychotic behavior, and 2) she knew how and when to control it. Its kind of heartbreaking as I think I could MAYBE understand if she didnt know what she was doing or how to control it. But she did know what she was doing and she knew how to control it.
ghostrepublic 4 months ago
@ghostrepublic Sounds like my grandmother too, even today at 93 when outsiders come to visit, she can put on such a nice act, but when it's just us...*cringe*. Nightmare is the definition of her.
TheBookWorm1718 3 months ago
@spy4863
your correct about not being able to tell from outward looks, but to me, that gap in the railing could be some serious accident waiting to happen.
AlvinaZane 4 months ago
@AlvinaZane You have a very good point. I didn't even notice the missing railing piece until you pointed it out. I grew up in the 70's and at that time nobody even gave a second thought to such safety measures like bike helmets, lead paint and cribs with wife bars wide enough for a baby to slip their head through. We weren't stupid or unaware of safety measures, it's just that sometimes it only takes one accident to point out potential azards to people. Thanks for your safety conscious point.
spy4863 4 months ago
im in the mood to punch a kid now!
lemonlimestiv 1 year ago
Man, I could go for some Smucker's jelly right about now
Lectronimo 1 year ago 11
The creepiest part is how insanely upbeat the music and the announcer are.
StinkadoodlePie 1 year ago
@StinkadoodlePie
That's Mason Adams doing the narrating. He was best known for the Smuckers TV commercials. He also did a stint of acting on a 70's TV show called...Lou Grant.
texasghost 7 months ago