THE WEEK THAT WAS Clunk Click Every Trip - Savile’s disgraced but these messages stayed with Rooster a lifetime

[webfact]

 

OPINION | by Rooster

 

News this week that the authorities in Thailand were finally going to make seatbelts in the rear of cars mandatory set Rooster off on one of those Wiki/YouTube hunts: Looking at Public Information Films from my UK childhood and many after I left my homeland.

 

I don’t mind telling you I had some tears. Not of nostalgia but because many of the graphic messages about safety - often directed at children - have stayed with me to this day. 

 

I nearly lost my beloved kid last year in a swimming related incident. We’re never, ever too old to learn.

 

And learning is what many Thais need to do. Many know about helmets, seatbelts and drink driving but do little. The message just doesn't get across. Laissez-faire reigns in the Land of the Free (to Kill Yourself and Others).

 

Many know little of the dangers posed by old fridges, playing on farms or one that claims so many young lives - ponds in gardens and lakes in villages. 

 

Maybe they could take a leaf out of the UK’s playbook of yesteryear to get messages about basic safety understood loud and clear. Thailand has some brilliant advertising gurus and filmmakers who could be gainfully employed.

 

I’ve seen only a few campaigns in my time here that really hit home (Taa Wiset or Magic Eyes about littering was one but was soon abandoned). The government needs to coordinate with the private sector to get graphic and tell people some home truths.

 

Examples of PIF’s are endless;  many were produced by the now disbanded Central Office of Information in the UK. I’d recommend readers to Google.

 

 

Some have been ridiculed like 1950’s films about nuclear attack where people caught outside were told to “lie down”. But even when I saw that in a famous banned film, in a public Carshalton hall in 1980, it had a dramatic effect. I left the hall in a daze, thankful, for now, to be alive.

 

Jimmy Savile - now the rightfully disgraced and gladly dead  paedophile - featured in one of the most famous PIF’s (known as Public Service Announcements in the US).

 

 

He told us to “Clunk Click every trip” - no mention of the word seatbelt in the slogan yet everyone knew what it meant and does to this day. 

 

Savile and other huge celebrities of the time used their fame to get attention to issues. Clunk Click ran for years through the 70s with “in your face” images every bit as horrible as the facial injuries shown of people who didn’t belt up. In one Savile compares a person unbuckled in a car to a solitary egg in a box. How it can move around if shaken. 

 

One I’d never seen was a series from 1998-2003 and pertinent to the wearing of seatbelts in the rear of cars in Thailand. It was about Julie. The voiceover ran as Julie drove out happily with her kids:

 

 

“Like most victims Julie knew her killer”. (A white van is seen in the rear hoodwinking the viewer).

 

“It was her son who wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. After crushing her to death he sat back down”.

 

Show that in Thailand and they’d get the message. It’s stark and horrific. Unexpected and powerful. And very un-PC like so many of the films before weak liberals worried about shocking the public into sense.

 

As a biker and car driver one slogan that stayed with me was “Think once, think twice, think BIKE!” advising motorists to look out for riders as they couldn’t be seen well. Again, the biker is mangled. Unpleasant - just like death really is.

 

 

(Thailand has no problem showing those kinds of grisly pictures though in the last few years editors are getting out too much vaseline for my ghoulish liking).

 

One cartoon from 1971 contains frightening messages about the perils of discarded fridges that trap children. It begins:

 

“To you it’s just a worn out fridge, but to a child it’s a caravan, a ship, a castle, even a bed”.  “Old fridges can KILL” says the final message. 

 

 

That was a new one on Mrs R who inquired as to why I was welling up again at my keyboard.

 

One from 1979 featuring Robert Powell was about the dangers to young children of garden ponds. It contained a memorable line after a blonde haired girl was floating dead:

 

“Don’t expect children as young as this to stay away from ponds just because you told them”. 

 

A vital message to all parents, me included, that words are just that - fences and covers are what’s needed until kids grow up.

 

Yes, this requires money to be spent, a big issue in Thailand where savings cost lives.

 

Longer films called “Apaches” about the dangers of playing on farms and “Powerful Stuff” about threats from electricity have equally powerful messages, relevant to every society, in every era.

 

 

“Drinking and Driving Wrecks Lives” ran throughout the 1980s and 1990s. One featured a happy scene as Mungo Jerry’s iconic “In The Summertime” played with that classic line:

 

“Have a drink, have a drive, go out and see what you can find”.

 

The answer is soon plain - death for you and others. 

 

 

One features no cars - just a little girl with tears in her eyes as off screen her mum berates her dad for being a murderer behind the wheel. Jeez, that was powerful.

 

Another about going through what the British call amber lights is entitled “Amber Gambler” (1977). A guy who races to get through the lights meets himself in another car. 

 

 

Ring any bells Thailand?

 

Many utilize humor and that would go down well in LOS. One is about good parking by a man who finally gets it right called Reginald Molehusband. He inspired the phrase “Doing a Reggie”. 

 

There are countless others, many aimed at children during early evening viewing in the 60s, 70s and 80s about stranger danger, crossing the road etc etc. 

 

So come on Thailand, make it mandatory for TV channels to air films, during kids’ shows (like the nightly soaps!). Don’t expect people - adults or children - to KNOW. Inform them. Use language they’ll understand and images they’ll never forget.

 

Like Savile said about unsecured people in cars:

 

“You are a loose object despite being the best driver”. 

 

Posters will say Thailand will never learn about safety. I beg to differ. Educate properly, get the message across in a strong, maybe humorous way with a clever catchphrase. 

 

Lives could be saved, today and for years to come. Just do it!

 

The changes to the rear seat belt law showed how far Thailand has to come. After it was announced that “D-Day” was September 5th the RTP showed they hadn’t got the first clue.

 

They were planning on “softly, softly” as they always do. With that ominous caveat that fines are at the discretion of the officer. 

 

We all know what that means - if they can be bothered, if there is something in it for them. 

 

The government needs to be responsible for the advertising. And the police for the enforcement. Send a strong message and stop all the faffing about on this and so many other safety issues. 

 

 

In other - but safety related - news this week the fallout from Mountain B raged on like the fire. The owner “Sia B” started paying out initial sums of 50,000 baht for funerals. He seemed genuine enough but hapless. There really is no excuse for people who run clubs. They need to be responsible and so do the pathetic authorities who turn a blind eye, take back handers and fail to enforce. 

 

It’s the public who suffer, but through their connivance Somchai Saboo (Joe Soap) isn’t entirely innocent. 

 

Ever met a Thai who would pay a bigger fine at the station rather than a smaller roadside offering?

 

 

Sia B’s lawyer offered excuses, plenty of “wai-ing” and merit making was done and one could smell the charred remains of Santika pub in Thong Lo 13 years ago in nostrils familiar to the stench of corruption. 

 

Nothing has been learned. 

 

 

Except how to make a public show of course. This was done in an absolutely crass photo shoot at a temple where a heroic manager who went back into the flames and died had to play second fiddle to a large million baht check from the Labour Minister. 

 

Yes, following labor benefits’ law is important. So is modesty and a little quiet respect to the dead.

 

 

In international news two deaths of superstar female singers saddened the world. Judith Durham - the Australian vocalist of The Seekers had an angelic voice; I’ll Never Find Another You and Georgy Girl were iconic songs. 

 

 

Then Olivia Newton-John - star of Grease and singer of many number ones - died of cancer. She worked tirelessly to help sufferers from the disease. 

 

In Florida Trump was jumping up and down screaming “Banana Republic” after the FBI looked in his safe. Sorry, Mr ex-president (he couldn’t even get that right), that’s what cops do to toerag criminals. 

 

Best news of the week was the continuing efforts by the courts to strip conspiracy theorist and all round rotten egg Alex Jones of everything he owns. To suggest to grieving parents of little children that Sandy Hook was all a hoax needs more than damages, however. It needs jail time and plenty of it to send a message to the internet trolls that “we are coming after you”.

 

 

As the English Premier League kicked off (heralding life to begin again for Spurs mad Rooster!), EPL legend Ryan Giggs appeared in court for beating up his girlfriend. She found a message on his phone about him going to a bar to “pull some clunge”. That was a new ‘word’ for me. A four letter one starting with a “C” that fronted a Gigg’s email, was not.

 

 

How the mighty have fallen.

 

Back in Thailand police in Pathum Thani took the murderess of a plastic shop owner for a reenactment. She’d blown away her boyfriend with four shots in two separate salvoes after he’d dared her over the phone to come and shoot him.

 

(Note to self: don’t challenge a Thai woman in this way….) 

 

The aging mother of the victim, killed after presenting alms to monks outside his shop, aimed a kick at her head as she “graaped” in forgiveness on the tarmac. 

 

 

Many think the reenactments should end. Journalists - especially at Amarin TV - would rather they continue as they are great theater and great copy. 

 

For the police, they tie up cases neatly - with the only effort required being to keep the lynch mob at bay before heading back to the station for some much needed ‘som tam gai yang’ and a count of the day’s takings. 

 

Top value for money this week was a porn star - difficult to describe her in any other way - called Oi Roy Joop (Oi Kiss). She’d removed her kit and got her “mammaries out for the lads” at Toy Station in Lamlukka. 

 

 

The great publicity cost her a mere 5,000 baht for offending public morals. She’ll probably spend it on more “body art” as the lovers of tattoos often call the ruining of the human body.

 

I’m not a fan. What’s wrong with nice skin?

 

 

Not surprisingly the manager of Toy Station is in worse trouble because he didn’t have a licence….

 

Do they ever?

 

Finally, my thanks to all the posters who commented on last week’s feature about US YouTuber “My Mate Nate”.

 

Especially to those who appreciated the new picture format and a young man making good in Thailand.

 

But also to the many detractors who had a go at Nate, Rooster’s apparent “idolization” of him and who clearly displayed their pathetic envy of a successful young man.

 

You proved my point admirably.

 

Rooster

 

 

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[Tropicalevo]

Totally agree that Thailand desperately needs PIF's.

I still remember them from the '50s and '60s.

Do not dazzle (headlights on full beam)

Parking (never on the brow of a hill or a corner/bend)

Careful overtaking (again never on the brow of a hill or a corner/bend)

And so on infinitum.

Well said.

[DezLez]

One of your best ever, and that is saying something!

Well done.

 

[proton]

Missed last weeks my mate Nate love in. Thanks for the warning ????

[Simple Jack]

Great post mate.

[madmitch]

They don't seem to have an issue with grisly pictures on cigarette packs so they could and should do the same on TV. 

 

Those campaigns in the UK were very intense and in your face back then. TV watching habits are very different now but it would still be the best way to get the message across.

[tompelli]

I recall seeing a photo of a 5/6 year old pretty girl, camera zooms in to show that she seemed to have gone face first into a spiders web. Then a voice explained this was the result of endless plastic surgery & face reconstruction after going through a windscreen. 

[mrfill]

Clunge origin

 

More than likely from the hilarious TV series The Inbetweeners.

Lots of episodes on the Tube

[Ray Ban]

The seat belt campaign in Australia was” Click clack front and back.” New Zealand picked it up but had to make the change to “Click click front and back” because “back” with a Kiwi  accent comes out as “bick”!

[Chassa]

I’m not a fan. What’s wrong with nice skin?

 

I totally agree with that!

[RobU]

Interesting, topical and well written as usual.

[terryofcrete]

Good piece. Thank you ! 

[baz69er]

I would of thought the countless funerals that family & friends & children that have attended where the deceased have been wiped out unnecessarily by drink drivers, unroadworthy vehicles, falling asleep at the wheel, riding motorbikes with no helmets etc, the list goes on, but it never sinks in.........

[BostonRob2]

8 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Totally agree that Thailand desperately needs PIF's.

I still remember them from the '50s and '60s.

Do not dazzle (headlights on full beam)

Parking (never on the brow of a hill or a corner/bend)

Careful overtaking (again never on the brow of a hill or a corner/bend)

And so on infinitum.

Well said.

I thought brow of a hill was just above Jimmy Hill's eyes. 

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Rooster

[BostonRob2]

8 hours ago, DezLez said:

One of your best ever, and that is saying something!

Well done.

 

Thanks a lot.

 

I enjoyed the research for this piece, even though it was a tad harrowing.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Rooster

 

[BostonRob2]

6 hours ago, Simple Jack said:

Great post mate.

Thanks a lot, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading and taking the trouble to comment.

 

Rooster

[BostonRob2]

22 minutes ago, baz69er said:

I would of thought the countless funerals that family & friends & children that have attended where the deceased have been wiped out unnecessarily by drink drivers, unroadworthy vehicles, falling asleep at the wheel, riding motorbikes with no helmets etc, the list goes on, but it never sinks in.........

Indeed there must be few people who don't know someone or someone's friend who has not been killed or injured. In my very earliest days in Thailand a friend was killed walking down the road in Hat Yai. I thought I'd try and look after myself in memory of him after that. I've had a few close shaves - for years I had a skull on my keyring lest I forgot.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Rooster

[kidneyw]

Clunk click every trip. Never forgot it.

[BostonRob2]

1 hour ago, terryofcrete said:

Good piece. Thank you ! 

Cheers,

 

Rooster

[BostonRob2]

1 minute ago, kidneyw said:

Clunk click every trip. Never forgot it.

Yes, so simple and so clever. Some ads today try and be clever, and fail.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Rooster

1 hour ago, RobU said:

Interesting, topical and well written as usual.

Thanks as usual for the positivity. 

 

Cheers,

 

Rooster

[Crossy]

8 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Totally agree that Thailand desperately needs PIF's.

I still remember them from the '50s and '60s.

Do not dazzle (headlights on full beam)

Parking (never on the brow of a hill or a corner/bend)

Careful overtaking (again never on the brow of a hill or a corner/bend)

And so on infinitum.

Well said.

 

Yeah, thought provoking but often strangely humorous, maybe that's why we remember them.

 

Sadly the cartoon that goes with this seems to be lost to time, but it still rings true every time I see Thai on-site operations:-

 

Sir Isaac Newton told us why, an apple falls down from the sky;

and from this fact it’s very plain, all other objects do the same,

A brick, a bar, a bolt, a cup, invariably fall down not up;

and every common working tool is governed by the self-same rule.

So if at work you drop a spanner, it travels in a downward manner.

At work, a fifth of accidents and more celebrate old Newtons law.

 

For those who have no idea what we are on about, this one isn't lost.

 

 

[KannikaP]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

She found a message on his phone about him going to a bar to “pull some clunge”

Somebody explain to me why people who are having illicit affairs, or doing something illegal, or their mother-in-law told them what the cat had for breakfast, keep the messages/evidence on their phone.

[KannikaP]

1 hour ago, kidneyw said:

Clunk click every trip. Never forgot it.

Now then, now then, now then, never forget what a perv JS was!

[roo860]

My wife was driving this car last month, she walked away with bruising as result of wearing her seat belt.

Thank god she always wears one!!!

[BostonRob2]

1 hour ago, sawadee1947 said:

Could it be that you got too much ganja since it's easy to get?

Or is it about long Covid?

It's not a crime to ask for a break to recover by the way.

I don't mind you having a go at me for my content, opinions or writing. But these personal comments about my private life, my health and also ageist comments earlier in your post are unwarranted and, frankly, rather childish.

 

You need to give ME a break or. as a recently made moderator, I will be giving you one.

 

A long one.

 

Final warning.

 

Rooster

[RobU]

1 hour ago, sawadee1947 said:

This week that was....Thailand news...

Well, Rooster, not much news about Thailand this week?

So no way but to dig deep in old stuff from last century which you definetely can't transform to Thailand.

What is your point actually?

To bother us with ancient photos and stories from UK? (Thailand News?)

Or is it just the fact that you're now in the age to look back (only)?

There is no doubt about the urgent necessity of safety here. It's common sense that Thailand can't fulfill even the basics.

But why then this old irrelevant UK stuff?

Could it be that you got too much ganja since it's easy to get?

Or is it about long Covid?

It's not a crime to ask for a break to recover by the way.

Have a relaxed weekend.

Have you actually read it? It is most definitely about Thailand, comparing Thailand now with the UK of the 50's and 60's. How the UK changed poor safety habits of the type that currently exist in Thailand using TV public service adverts (PSA's). We rarely see such PSA's in the UK because the message got through. In fact the last round of PSA's was to instruct us to imprison ourselves and keep away from friends because of COVID.

[RobU]

1 hour ago, KannikaP said:

Somebody explain to me why people who are having illicit affairs, or doing something illegal, or their mother-in-law told them what the cat had for breakfast, keep the messages/evidence on their phone.

Because they are thick, stupid and self entitled?

[baz69er]

I once wrote to Jimmy Saville, Dear Jim, please could you fix it for me, to milk a cow blind folded.     

[Woof999]

I'm sure "Clunk, click on every trip" changed quickly to "Grope, blow on every show".

[BostonRob2]

16 minutes ago, Woof999 said:

I'm sure "Clunk, click on every trip" changed quickly to "Grope, blow on every show".

I think you can count yourself lucky he didn't take you up on that!

 

BTW only one L in his surname. Here's how to remember:

 

Jimmy' s a vile paedophile.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Rooster