Charley Says: Teapot

1973
Sound
1m

Charley's cat-astrophic teatime hijinks leave him with a burning message to share

As if strangers, matches, and rivers weren't dangerous enough, now teapots are out to get you. Crafting a safety message for children young enough to need reminding not to pull tablecloths is a tricky business. The technique of using Charley as a surrogate for the child being hurt himself was apparently popular with psychiatrists employed by the Home Office.

Animated public information filler. A boy and his cat Charley are playing around the house. Charley gets very interested by the food on the table and pulls the tablecloth, causing the hot water from the teapot to spill all over him. He tells the boy, who tells the audience what he has learnt.

Animation Goes to Work

For those with an official message to get across, animation is the perfect messenger

Animation has an almost magical ability to charm and captivate. And those same qualities also make it a strikingly effective communication tool. It grabs attention, speaks to all ages, and can distil complex messages into simple and appealing visual metaphors. For government or other august bodies, cartoon antics have often been the perfect jam to sweeten the pill of official communications, whether to explain sweeping change or impart health and safety messages. And for the inventive animator, even the most utilitarian brief is no barrier to the most outlandish of treatments.