In 2005, a series of safety posters based on The Simpson TV characters was released in support of the National Safety Council’s Orlando Congress, as reported in SafetyAtWork Bulletin at the time, picture right). The posters have finally reached Australia and will be unveiled at the Safety In Action exhibition on 2 April 2010. They are sure to be popular.
A small selection of Simpsons posters will be available through WorkSafety Solutions, the Australian distributor. Many more have been added through the original US distributor, SafetyWorld since the original launch.
I have used these posters occasionally in OHS talks to high school students as they are a good attention-getter and were not available in Australia before. However, I am unsure whether the presence of the Simpson is not a distraction from the safety message rather than an educator. Given that The Simpsons has considerable black humour and the poster of Homer electrocuting himself is funny. The debate about presentation and image is a perennial in the marketing world but one that should be considered by safety professionals before purchase.
On the issue of purchasing, the Australian Simpsons posters are selling at $A45 each. The Australian and US dollars are not far off parity so the fact that the US website is selling the same posters, and a bigger range, at $US17.95 each is an important consideration.
I wonder whether US workplaces have a high rate of theft of the posters given the high collectability of The Simpsons merchandise.
We purchased the Simpson’s posters from work safety solutions and the results of using humour with safety have been outstanding. Using Homer to spread safety messages has been fantastic. Without a doubt everybody knows the Simpson’s. We purchased 12 posters which reduced the price significantly. I think the prices listed on the website are for single purchase only because when I called Work Safety Solutions I was able to negotiate a better price. So i suggest give them a call as they were great and very helpful.
Anything that gets the message across is fine provided the workplace is adequately resourced to cover all necessary safety obligations, window dressing doesn\’t cut it.
The issue of adding humour to safety awareness/training has been debated before. If a simple message is reinforced with the use of the Simpsons – and if we collectively recall these messages better than a \”serious\” poster that long ago became wallpaper – surely this can\’t be a bad thing? And I too wonder how many ex-company owned posters now hang on the back of home toilet doors!
Outside the issue of The Simpsons subject matter, the \”ifs\” in your comment are very important questions and ones that are being discussed in a range of industries. I would be interested if the questions are being researched in the safety context