The Significance of the 2006 Ad Campaign by the WSIB of Ontario 

Injuries at the workplace are 100% preventable!

This is the doctrine of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario.

There have been interesting ad campaigns in the past, but their most recent one is certainly very contentious.

The commercials in question rather graphically depict the occurrence of an “accident” at various workplaces, and then proceed to bring to the forefront questions regarding the variables involved in the development of each respective incident.

Some people have criticized this particular ad campaign as being too harsh, “shocking” and too explicit, for presentation to the public at large.

But why is it, and for that matter, why is anything ever seen as being overly graphic when it is simply a part of our existence?

Things happen in our world, and we need to recognize them.  We have to look at them!  If we even slightly begin to ignore them, we inanely totter on the edge of a slippery slope and set into motion an initiation to the loss of touch with reality.

Consider the complaint regarding a physical extension of the campaign at the Yonge/Dundas intersection in Toronto, where a ‘prevent-it.ca’ sign points to an overturned, banged-up car, isolated by thick, yellow cautionary barricades.

Even though this physicality lies off of the sidewalk and within the realm of the Dundas Square, in his blog Prevent it – ad creep, that is on SpacingWire at www.spacing.ca, Matthew Blackett claims that “they (the WSIB) are creating a walking obstacle of their own for the disabled and the blind, not to mention every able-bodied person.”

Well Mr. Blackett, let me ask you this: Who do we blame for the trees, and the garbage bins, and the walls of buildings that come between the human and empty space?

Boy!  There certainly is a lot of empty space in some people!  (Insert smiley here!)

(How fitting that www.spacing.ca was used as a platform)

The WSIB of Ontario boasts a remarkably intriguing website with a particularly user-friendly interface, which naturally winds up being a pretty motivational combination – you really want people to take all the necessary precautions while completing tasks at the workplace.

If there is an inadequate amount of positive results gained through the existing alerts to the preventability of such “accidents” and injuries at the workplace, then isn’t it just obvious that we need to re-think the current formatting and develop and create a more effective, efficient way of dealing with these issues?

That is just what I have seen the WSIB of Ontario accomplish.  Their current ad campaign against ignorance and indifference toward further education on workplace safety issues dramatically emphasizes the ongoing need for a more strict managing of health and safety at the workplace.

And I raise my safety hat in their defense.

-Kevin Dass