I’m wondering how much is actually new in the World?

Are TikTok Health and Safety educational videos really any different to approaches that have been served up in the past?

While avoiding TikTok adverts on television (!) I’ve been rummaging around my most precious treasures, pretending to tidy up and de-clutter. This has unearthed some of my 1970s beermat collection, featuring of all things coal mining health and safety. I kid you not.

Here’s a picture of some DO IT… THE SAFETY WAY beer-mats the National Coal Board (NCB) distributed to Miners Social Clubs in the 1970s.

Let’s get crooner Max Bygraves to sing a Health and Safety song… In 1976 the NCB instigated a year long health and safety campaign for their collieries. Rightly so.

Mining is a dangerous activity and in the 1970’s too many people were still being injured and dying in preventable accidents.

One of the genius things the NCB did was commission all round entertainer Max Bygraves to sing a song accompanied by the Grimethorp Colliery Band.

The song was written by Jack Birchall, an administrative officer at Bickershaw Colliery who won a competition in ‘Coal News’. It’s all beautifully detailed in this article by Iwan Fox in 4barsrest (a brass band community site).

The NCB pressed over 250,000 45rpm vinyl copies of ‘Do it the Safety Way’ which were handed out to employees (especially trainees).

There’s a brilliant bit of assumption going on here; i) that most people had access to record player at home, ii) the target audience (trainees) would listen to a middle age crooner rather than David Bowie or a Punk Band.

I do encourage you to have a listen to the song.

I don’t remember it ever being played at home. My mother thinks my father (ex NCB worker) had a copy and she knew some of the words when I played it to her. My search for treasure has now extended to a box of old 45’s somewhere in the shed…

I’m also checking with a few ex-miner cousins to see if there’s anything in the claim it was played at the end of shifts over the Pit Head Baths tannoy system. If it did happened, I suspect it was just the once…

I know that half the money I spend on advertising is wasted . I just don’t know which half… John Wanamaker.

But did the campaign improve safety? As with any education / behaviour change / culture shift campaign that’s a hard one to answer.

Do any students of Heath and Safety know if there was any evaluation of the effectiveness of this campaign?

Given that it was a hugely important issue, funded by a massive industry I’d like to think so. I’d be interested to hear if anyone knows.

However it has had an impact on me. It’s given me an ‘ear-worm’ I’ve been unable to shake off for 3 days.

“Common sense saves accidents, do it the Safety Way…” (have a listen yourself)

Bless you Max, bless you Grimethorp Colliery Band, bless you Jack Birchhall and bless you the NCB.

I am now thinking more consciously about my behaviour around dangerous things in the shed (whilst looking for those 45rpm vinyl records).

But would Max have done it on TikTok?

I mentioned earlier that I’ve been trying to avoid TikTok, but not just recently. Justified by a bit of “I’ve got too much going on to fit in another time grabber” and a bit of pseudo-intellectual snobbishness.

In an act of ‘research’ I’ve downloaded TikTok and had a look.

Specifically I went searching for Health and Safety Educational Videos.

No surprise, there were hundreds of them. Covering just about every H&S topic I could imagine and crossing the boundaries of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

It did take me back to some of the things Dan Slee has said about TikTok and Public Services; you can’t ignore it, it’s where lots of people get thier information, so you it’s worth doing it right. This advice from Dan on do’s and don’ts for local government TikTok is well worth a look.

Finally, I’m now wondering what Do It The Safety Way would have looked like on TikTok?

Would Max Bygraves have crooned and the Grimethorp Colliery Band accompanied enthusiastically. Absolutely yes.

So, What’s the PONT?

1. Just like ‘love will find a way’, Health and Safety videos seem to ‘find a way’. There’s population explosion of them on TikTok.

2. Just because it’s possible, doesn’t mean you should do it. It’s worth checking in with Dan Slee’s advice before publishing on TikTok.

3. There’s not much new in the world. The NCB 1970’s Mines Health and Safety campaign used everything available at the time, from songs to beer-mats. “Do it the safety way…”