On September 5 2012, the Tasmania Minister for Industrial Relations, David O’Byrne launched a new campaign to encourage businesses to prepare for new Work Health and Safety laws. The name of the campaign is “OH S…”.
O’Byrne’s media release explains the campaign:
“OH S… is the understandable gut reaction of any worker, manager or business owner when they hear there’s been an accident in the workplace… This campaign uses that first reactionary moment to try and promote how workplaces can be proactive on work health and safety.”
It is reminiscent of the famous line by Bill Cosby when describing a car accident and a driver’s reaction:
“First you say it, then you do it”.
The wisdom of this campaign is questionable. There could be a range of responses created in the media by various comedians, all to do with safety and shit, such as:
“Make the job safe, move that shit”.
“Don’t be a shithead with safety”.
“The top three priorities of this company is Safety First, Safety Second and Safety Turd”.
Bringing shit into the concept of safety is a challenge and could offend some of the old-guard that sees OHS as sacrosanct. But it could be that such an advertising strategy for workplace safety is necessary. Continue reading “Shit safety campaign launched in Australia”