WSIB ads too graphic for Transit Windsor
Sonja Puzic, The Windsor Star Published: Wednesday, December 12, 2007
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario's ubiquitous ad campaign aimed at preventing workplace injuries may be getting a lot of air time on television, but Windsor commuters will be spared the graphic images of disfigured workers while waiting for the bus.
Transit Windsor is refusing to place WSIB's print ads in bus shelters, citing their "disturbing" nature and gory images. One ad shows a construction worker laying on the ground in a pool of blood, an oversized forklift operation manual piercing his chest. The message: "Lack of training can kill."
Another poster shows an unconscious and bloodied man whose arm is severed by a "danger" sign. One of his legs is stuck in a machine he was operating. "Ignoring safety procedures can kill," is written at the bottom.
"We're not against workplace safety, but this is too graphic," Coun. Caroline Postma, chair of the Transit Windsor board, said Wednesday. "It may scare some kids. If we put this in our bus shelters, I'm sure we're going to get complaints."
Postma said Transit Windsor is asking the WSIB for "toned down" versions of the attention-grabbing ads.
"Take the blood out," she said. "That's what we're asking."
Transit authorities in Mississauga also rejected the bus shelter ads, and Hamilton is considering modified versions for its shelters.
WSIB's TV commercials are even more sensational than the print ads, showing horrendous workplace accidents. Viewers are shown a sous chef who slips on kitchen floor grease and pours a vat of hot oil on herself, screaming in agony as blisters quickly form on her face.
In another commercial, a young woman in a retail store falls off a ladder into a glass table. As blood oozes from her head and face, she tells a co-worker how the fall could have been prevented. Each commercial ends with the tag line: "There really are no accidents."
The WSIB campaign has been widely debated, with some people criticizing the explicit images and others applauding the bold approach to getting the message across.
According to the WSIB, five Canadians die of workplace injuries or occupational diseases every working day.
-- With files from CanWest News Service
© The Windsor Star 2007
Controversial and explicit Canadian workplace safety ads have been pulled from television, and paper ads from some bus shelters for the Christmas season. However, the ads will return to air in January.

"It's totally erroneous to suggest we're pulling anything," chairman of the Workplace Safety and Information Board of Ontario, Steve Mahoney said. "Our plan from Day 1 was to stop the ads around the middle of December when most of the advertising that's in the media is focused on Christmas and purchasing gifts. We just didn't want to be competing with all that stuff."

In one of the TV ads a woman accidentally slips on grease on the floor and a large steaming pot falls onto her face, and she starts screaming to death. The ads end with the message "There really are no accidents".

A paper ads shows a construction worker who is in a pool of blood with a forklift operation manual stuck in his chest. Another with a man who is slit by a "Danger" sign with his leg stuck in a machine. They show the messages: "Lack of training can kill" and the other "Ignoring safety procedures can kill".

"The critics amount to about 25 per cent rating, and I'm delighted they're upset about the ads because I wouldn't want anyone to enjoy watching them."

The videos have been viewed more than 70,000 times on the Board's website and are gaining large amounts of views on YouTube.

The transit authorities of Hamilton and Mississauga will show modified advertisements. The transit authority of Guelph will show the ads in bus shelters, but the transit authority of Windsor will not because of the graphic nature.

"We're not against workplace safety, but this is too graphic," said Caroline Postma, chair of the Transit Windsor board.

Mississauga city councillour Carolyn Parrish said: "My son-in-law was telling me that they shouldn't be on in prime time because when my grandson watches them he just about bursts into tear. Now he follows his mom around the kitchen to make sure she doesn't spill grease. And he's only four. There's too much of a chance that ... people are really badly affected by it, and can't really do anything about it anyway." She suggested the ads only be aired to workers with the jobs shown in the commercials.

Mahoney changed the earlier promise to air the ads only after 8:00pm to after 9:00pm at last nights meeting with Mississauga city council.

Mahoney said the commercials and paper ads are not "too graphic at all". And they are "absolutely appropriate and they're doing what they're intended to do, they're creating what I call a water cooler topic of conversation."

Ninety-eight Canadian workers so far have been killed on the job this year.