I think I'm going to be sick
Discussion
Don't know if anyone's seen Somerset and Avon scamera pratnership TV advert but you can imagine. They've got a load of those sickening photos of flowers by the road and then goes on to say how much we all prefer to see a scamera there instead 
They must have too much £££ left over this year so spent it on this advert. Do they honestly think we believe them?
>> Edited by KITT on Monday 9th May 18:42
They must have too much £££ left over this year so spent it on this advert. Do they honestly think we believe them?
>> Edited by KITT on Monday 9th May 18:42
A short excerpt, George Orwell, 1984, but you get the idea...
Winston dialled 'back numbers' on the telescreen and called for the appropriate issues of the Times, which slid out of the pneumatic tube after only a few minutes' delay. The messages he had received referred to articles or news items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, as the official phrase had it, to rectify. For example, it appeared from the Times of the seventeenth of March that Big Brother, in his speech of the previous day, had predicted that the South Indian front would remain quiet but that a Eurasian offensive would shortly be launched in North Africa. As it happened, the Eurasian Higher Command had launched its offensive in South India and left North Africa alone. It was therefore necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother's speech, in such a way as to make him predict the thing that had actually happened. Or again, the Times of the nineteenth of December had published the official forecasts of the output of various classes of consumption goods in the fourth quarter of 1983, which was also the sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. Today's issue contained a statement of the actual output, from which it appeared that the forecasts were in every instance grossly wrong. Winston's job was to rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones. As for the third message, it referred to a very simple error which could be set right in a couple of minutes. As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a 'categorical pledge' were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April.
As soon as Winston had dealt with each of the messages, he clipped his speakwritten corrections to the appropriate copy of the Times and pushed them into the pneumatic tube. Then, with a movement which was as nearly as possible unconscious, he crumpled up the original message and any notes that he himself had made, and dropped them into the memory hole to be devoured by the flames.
What happened in the unseen labyrinth to which the pneumatic tubes led, he did not know in detail, but he did know in general terms. As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of The Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs -- to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct, nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place. The largest section of the Records Department, far larger than the one on which Winston worked, consisted simply of persons whose duty it was to track down and collect all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded and were due for destruction. A number of The Times which might, because of changes in political alignment, or mistaken prophecies uttered by Big Brother, have been rewritten a dozen times still stood on the files bearing its original date, and no other copy existed to contradict it. Books, also, were recalled and rewritten again and again, and were invariably reissued without any admission that any alteration had been made. Even the written instructions which Winston received, and which he invariably got rid of as soon as he had dealt with them, never stated or implied that an act of forgery was to be committed: always the reference was to slips, errors, misprints, or misquotations which it was necessary to put right in the interests of accuracy.
But actually, he thought as he re-adjusted the Ministry of Plenty's figures, it was not even forgery. It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connexion with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connexion that is contained in a direct lie. Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version. A great deal of the time you were expected to make them up out of your head. For example, the Ministry of Plenty's forecast had estimated the output of boots for the quarter at one-hundred-and-forty-five million pairs. The actual output was given as sixty-two millions. Winston, however, in rewriting the forecast, marked the figure down to fifty-seven millions, so as to allow for the usual claim that the quota had been overfulfilled. In any case, sixty-two millions was no nearer the truth than fifty-seven millions, or than one-hundred-and-forty-five millions. Very likely no boots had been produced at all. Likelier still, nobody knew how many had been produced, much less cared. All one knew was that every quarter astronomical numbers of boots were produced on paper, while perhaps half the population of Oceania went barefoot. And so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain.
>> Edited by Balmoral Green on Monday 9th May 19:27
Winston dialled 'back numbers' on the telescreen and called for the appropriate issues of the Times, which slid out of the pneumatic tube after only a few minutes' delay. The messages he had received referred to articles or news items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, as the official phrase had it, to rectify. For example, it appeared from the Times of the seventeenth of March that Big Brother, in his speech of the previous day, had predicted that the South Indian front would remain quiet but that a Eurasian offensive would shortly be launched in North Africa. As it happened, the Eurasian Higher Command had launched its offensive in South India and left North Africa alone. It was therefore necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother's speech, in such a way as to make him predict the thing that had actually happened. Or again, the Times of the nineteenth of December had published the official forecasts of the output of various classes of consumption goods in the fourth quarter of 1983, which was also the sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. Today's issue contained a statement of the actual output, from which it appeared that the forecasts were in every instance grossly wrong. Winston's job was to rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones. As for the third message, it referred to a very simple error which could be set right in a couple of minutes. As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a 'categorical pledge' were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April.
As soon as Winston had dealt with each of the messages, he clipped his speakwritten corrections to the appropriate copy of the Times and pushed them into the pneumatic tube. Then, with a movement which was as nearly as possible unconscious, he crumpled up the original message and any notes that he himself had made, and dropped them into the memory hole to be devoured by the flames.
What happened in the unseen labyrinth to which the pneumatic tubes led, he did not know in detail, but he did know in general terms. As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of The Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs -- to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct, nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place. The largest section of the Records Department, far larger than the one on which Winston worked, consisted simply of persons whose duty it was to track down and collect all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded and were due for destruction. A number of The Times which might, because of changes in political alignment, or mistaken prophecies uttered by Big Brother, have been rewritten a dozen times still stood on the files bearing its original date, and no other copy existed to contradict it. Books, also, were recalled and rewritten again and again, and were invariably reissued without any admission that any alteration had been made. Even the written instructions which Winston received, and which he invariably got rid of as soon as he had dealt with them, never stated or implied that an act of forgery was to be committed: always the reference was to slips, errors, misprints, or misquotations which it was necessary to put right in the interests of accuracy.
But actually, he thought as he re-adjusted the Ministry of Plenty's figures, it was not even forgery. It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connexion with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connexion that is contained in a direct lie. Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version. A great deal of the time you were expected to make them up out of your head. For example, the Ministry of Plenty's forecast had estimated the output of boots for the quarter at one-hundred-and-forty-five million pairs. The actual output was given as sixty-two millions. Winston, however, in rewriting the forecast, marked the figure down to fifty-seven millions, so as to allow for the usual claim that the quota had been overfulfilled. In any case, sixty-two millions was no nearer the truth than fifty-seven millions, or than one-hundred-and-forty-five millions. Very likely no boots had been produced at all. Likelier still, nobody knew how many had been produced, much less cared. All one knew was that every quarter astronomical numbers of boots were produced on paper, while perhaps half the population of Oceania went barefoot. And so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain.
>> Edited by Balmoral Green on Monday 9th May 19:27
KITT said:
Don't know if anyone's seen Somerset and Avon scamera pratnership TV advert but you can imagine. They've got a load of those sickening photos of flowers by the road and then goes on to say how much we all prefer to see a scamera there instead
They must have too much £££ left over this year so spent it on this advert. Do they honestly think we believe them?
>> Edited by KITT on Monday 9th May 18:42
Perhaps they should have both!
Orwell was a brilliantly far-sighted writer. tim.tonal said:
Perhaps they should have both!
That ones on the A6 heading into hazel grove, i drive past it everyday. There's also a sign stating the number of child casualties on that stretch of road. So either the children were driving (it is stockport!) or they were unable learn how to safely cross a busy road! Either way speed cameras won't help!
KITT said:
Don't know if anyone's seen Somerset and Avon scamera pratnership TV advert but you can imagine. They've got a load of those sickening photos of flowers by the road and then goes on to say how much we all prefer to see a scamera there instead
They must have too much £££ left over this year so spent it on this advert. Do they honestly think we believe them?
>> Edited by KITT on Monday 9th May 18:42
Yeah, i've seen that..
Have you noticed the speed limits have dropped around here all of a sudden too!
"...photos of flowers by the road and then goes on to say how much we all prefer to see a scamera there instead..."
How bl00dy pathetic,a weak attempt to create a link in peoples' minds between the speed of vehicles and the accident at that place and to suggest that a camera would somehow have prevented the person's demise.
Do they know how the accident occured? How can they have the nerve to possibly upset the bereaved by suggesting that their dearly departed may have been alive were it not for a camera; given the tiny minority of deaths caused by a "high" velocity value, I think it highly unlikely that the death was thus caused.
How bl00dy pathetic,a weak attempt to create a link in peoples' minds between the speed of vehicles and the accident at that place and to suggest that a camera would somehow have prevented the person's demise.
Do they know how the accident occured? How can they have the nerve to possibly upset the bereaved by suggesting that their dearly departed may have been alive were it not for a camera; given the tiny minority of deaths caused by a "high" velocity value, I think it highly unlikely that the death was thus caused.
Saw this last night, made my stomach turn, what an utter lot of cock.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I suggest a group of us fill in the following form, if it makes them squirm even a little bit it must be worth ten minutes of our time?
Advertising standards complaint form
edit to add - I've just submitted a complaint.
>> Edited by _dobbo_ on Tuesday 10th May 18:52
Ladies and gentlemen, may I suggest a group of us fill in the following form, if it makes them squirm even a little bit it must be worth ten minutes of our time?
Advertising standards complaint form
edit to add - I've just submitted a complaint.
>> Edited by _dobbo_ on Tuesday 10th May 18:52
If the advert is misleading I believe the ASA has to act - even if only one complaint is made.
The content of my complaint follows:
Trouble is all the scumera lot need to do is consult an "expert" and quote some flawed research and will probably get away with it.
Nonetheless it shouldn't go unchallenged - we'll see what happens!
>> Edited by _dobbo_ on Tuesday 10th May 19:02
The content of my complaint follows:
dobbo's complaint to the ASA said:
The content of the advert suggests that road deaths in the avon and somerset area could have been prevented by the installation of speed cameras.
It appears to me that it is impossible for the partnership to demonstrate that either;
a.) Any road death in the area would have been prevented had a camera been installed at the location of the accident.
b.) Road deaths are lower in the area due to the increased speed camera presence or that the installation of fixed speed camera locations has had any overall impact on the safety of the region's roads.
As such I would argue that the advert is misleading.
Also, the advert could potentially cause huge distress and offence to anyone who has a friend or relative who has died in a road accident, as the inference is that the death was caused by speeding and could have been prevented by a camera.
Trouble is all the scumera lot need to do is consult an "expert" and quote some flawed research and will probably get away with it.
Nonetheless it shouldn't go unchallenged - we'll see what happens!
>> Edited by _dobbo_ on Tuesday 10th May 19:02
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