Porcelain Gods

2009 may not have got off to the best start in the world, PIFwise, with that baffling and pointless Energy Efficiency one, but this is a welcome development. Yes, the CGI close-up of a rib puncturing a lung in the latest THINK! was not a one off - the violence is back! And not just violence, but the idea of a PIF being an exercise in suspense. We know this is going to work out badly, and the film makes us wait just a bit longer than it has to before the inevitable payoff.

There's a bunch of these, but this is the best, partially because it's the only one being shown in a 40-second variant and partly because it's so well edited. The other two have trouble with the transition from actual person to CGI porcelain (brrr...porcelain), but this one makes it work with editing tighter than Michael Howard's shoelaces.

The only problem I have is the closing details. The VO, for a start Nothing against Michael Angelis, but this kind of PIF needs a Gary Watson (he's still alive, incidentally, and 80 next year) or possibly even a Michael Jayston. In fact this PIF with the Valeyard talking over it would be terrifying, much as his late-80s St Ivel ads were the most chilling adverts for the most mundane product imaginable.

The other problem I have is the overabundance of information, URLs and so forth, that Angelis here has to give, which blunts the impact. Alright, so it's just "call us now or search online" but it still harms the impact, takes us out of the moment. It should just be "Accidents at work can shatter lives. (pause) Find out how to avoid them." And then the logo with a URL and phone number discreet-like in the corner with the HSE symbol. The cracking logo's a good touch, though, and a nice throwback to the first wave of branded (in the modern sense) PIFs in the late eighties, particuarly CRIME: Together We'll Crack It. Oh, and a few more seconds of silence to let the audience process what they just saw wouldn't go amiss - although that's more of a problem with the 30 second ones, one of which - the paintery one - has Angelis butt in while the guy's still in mid-air, before the porcelain thing even happens.

All things considered, however, this is the directions PIFs should be taking. Yes, the "shattered lives" bit is a means of wimping out of the showing of blood, but I'd still argue it's more effective than the recent, ultra-gory Canadian "There Are No Accidents" campaign on the same subject - it's less detached, its high-concept less alienating. You never know, maybe the 20-Teens will see another renaissance in PIF making?

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• advert
• commercial
• PIF
• Public
• information
• film
• PSA
• service
• announcement
• Shattered
• Lives
• Porcelain
• God
• That
• Shatters
• When
• It
• Falls
• Oblique
• Monkey
• Island
• Reference

[easportsbig899]

This actually makes me laugh for some reason.

5 stars

[viperxeon]

Why the fudge did I start laughing for?

Modern PIF/PSA's suck, the old ones use to scare the shit out of me.

[thevioletmasquerade]

This undoubtedly one of the funniest adverts I have ever seen. Literally had me ROFLing

[kris242]

lmao that is soooo lame compared to the Canadian accident commercials. They actually frighten me lmao

[Eldritchard]

Wow Thats a belter considering most of the pish. That actually made me jump.

[jackdietrich]

I'm really enamoured with this PIF. It has that good old-fashioned sense of looming horror, which in my opinion is only enhanced by the porcelain CGI malarkey. It combines the two great punchlines of the PIF; Both a visceral, gut-wrenching moment of impact and a more deeply affecting 'just you imagine' cutaway. Echoes of the Army's "Debris" PIF perhaps?

[electrogeek77]

This kind of creeped me out a little. But the still images on the website seem creepier.

[Thesurus02]

Hard to believe that some people are made out of porcelain lol.