I remember the Douglas Adams lines about the whale falling and splatting on the ground.
I was going through the TV guide today and I came across a murder film with a warning in the guide saying “contains scenes of whaling that some might find upsetting”. Hang on – this is a murder film. Never mind the whale killing, what about the person killing?
I remember on some of my early trips to the USA I would watch TV in the hotel room. There would be adverts with a string of tiny text at the bottom with a voiceover talking at supersonic speeds with warnings. So far we only have the small text on the screen bottom (often in low contrast which makes it hard to read).
But the TV guide is now filled with warnings, and some of them seem to be stretching things a bit. It seems we need to warn people just in case.
I remember having a session in my bank where a senior adviser tried to tell me I should take out a personal pension. He was training a junior colleague. I explained to him in not so kind terms that he was being less than honest with his advice. I hope the junior learned. Some years later anybody that said yes in this campaign got compensated for mis-selling.
Is this the right way to go? Or should we adopt more of a buyer beware approach?
We have already pulled Gone with the Wind. Will we get to the point of adding a warning to Moby Dick because of whale hunting? We certainly need a warning on the Bible.
I didn’t think the warnings on USA TV meant anything to the people the warnings were being given to – they were impossible to read and you could never take in the voiceover. The warnings were more about protecting companies than caring for the end users.