Adult Basic Skills: Entrance

Content warning:

Contains scenes that younger viewers may find frightening

I accept this guidance

Adult Basic Skills: Entrance

2003

Effective example of the 'Get Rid of Your Gremlins' campaign aimed at improving adult literacy and numeracy.

Faced with lower levels of adult literacy and numeracy in the UK than many neighbouring countries, in 2001 the Department of Education and Skills set a target of improving the situation for 2.25 million adults by 2010. The Central Office of Information was charged with raising public awareness of the help available and encouraging those affected to take action. The 'Get Rid of Your Gremlins' campaign was central to the agency's approach, with a marketing campaign built around several television commercials, posters, press advertisements and even Gremlin paper masks.

Emerging from the RAF in the 1920s, 'gremlins' were originally associated with malfunctioning machinery, and during WWII variations on such characters featured in a variety of propaganda posters to promote safety and vigilance. Here they play the part of inner demons, representing the fears and doubts that nag away and prevent us facing up to change. The campaign generated over 300,000 helpline calls by 2005, gaining widespread recognition, but it was ultimately felt that it fell short on its impetus to action, particularly with older audiences - while some parents complained that the gremlins themselves were frightening to young children.

TV filler. Part of the 'Get rid of your Gremlins' campaign promoting Basic
Skills classes for adult learners. A Gremlin persuades a young man not to
enrol for classes.

Be Careful Out There!: Public Information Fillers

How the COI used wit, imagination and fear to keep us out of harm's way.

For over 60 years, the Central Office of Information gently persuaded, humorously cajoled and even terrified us in the name of keeping us safe and well. The COI oversaw all kinds of government messaging in print, posters and radio as well as film and video, and much of it bypassed the British public (intended to encourage trade or other overseas interests, or as training for officials). But the COI is best remembered for its public safety campaigns, especially its 'public information fillers': short, direct messages warning us off myriad dangers, from cigarettes to slippery floors, fireworks to fridges, and shown in advert breaks on big screen or small. Many fillers from the 1970s and 80s - like Charley Says, the Green Cross Code Man and The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water - are now considered classics, enjoyed by generations who weren't even born when they were made. This collection takes up the story after that 'golden age', and sees the COI enter the digital era. In the process, the public information fillers took on a new visual sheen and their makers embraced a new bag of video tricks. But they also faced off new dangers, from the distractions of texting while driving to the menace of online predators. Ultimately, though, the COI met a foe it couldn’t fight, when at the end of 2011 it closed after 65 years, a victim of the coalition government's austerity.