I stumbled upon this when I was looking for creative advertisements and had no idea how to react. As a kid that grew up on the ocean, swimming and pools were a fact of our daily summer days. Do you wanna go to the beach or the pool was our daily decision. Our pools most certainly did not have any advertisements and when I saw this one I was in shock.
Is it bad? Have they gone too far? I wasn't really sure what to think, so I of course did some more research.
Deconstruction Questions:
#1& #2: Watch Around Water is a prosocial group that was created in response to lots of drowning deaths in Western Australia's public swimming pools. In response to these deaths they created an ad campaign to help stop these tragedy. This image definitely gets their point across that "life guards are not babysitters." Although I agree with the message of the advertisement, I would not be too keen on seeing a similar ad in the public swimming pool where I grew up.
#3 & #4: From my personal experience, if I was babysitting and saw this ad I would immediately become extra paranoid and not leave the children for one moment around the water. However, I can't imagine how parents would feel if they saw this advertisement, and I think many of them would have a different reaction. As a parent I feel that you can be much more on guard about people telling you how to raise your kids or suggesting that you may be neglectful. I think that the ad is also very scary to look at from anyone's perspective. The floating image of the child takes it to a different level than just words.
Although it targets both groups I think there is a very big difference in response when a caretaker of a child sees this ad and when a parent sees this ad. Even as a child if I saw this advertisement I would be much more careful around the pool. It's almost like a lifeguard in the water saying be careful.
#5& #6: The subtext is pretty clearly targeting parents. It suggests in even its existence that whether you're a parents, guardian, babysitter, or even child you are not being careful around water and are being irresponsible. I'm almost surprised it doesn't say "don't let it happen to you." I think that there is a fine line between the fear and caution that this message instills among pool goers and our culture. The graphic nature of the floating young child is very traumatizing. I don't think I would want my children to get used to seeing and become desensitized to this problem by constantly seeing this image. Words are one thing, but instilling that fear in our society and world is another. Why are words not enough and why have we as a culture had to resort to disturbing images as PSA's and reminders.
#8: The fear in this ad is powerful. In matters of life and death this ad throws the death of young children in the viewers face. This tragedy is your fault and preventable if you watch your child. For the responsible people out there I think the fear of loosing a loved one can even turn into extreme paranoia. I definitely grew up around people that would consider not letting us young kids swim if they saw this ad.
Getting the point across is not an issue in this advertisement. No matter who you are I think the message is clear. The real question is though, have we taken the fear to far?
