So with EMS week upon us, I thought of an unconventional theme that could shed light to Emergency Medical Services. It is great that the theme is EMS: More Than A Job. A Calling or Everyday Heroes or even Anytime. Anywhere. We’ll be there but frankly it serves no one, not even ourselves. I believe EMS week should have a dual purpose, one being thanking EMS for their service and showing recognition but secondly it needs to draw grab the publics attention to EMS.
I take my influence for my new EMS week theme from the New York anti smoking ads. Have you seen them? They are very graphic and almost unsettling, but they seem to be working. In New York, anti-smoking campaigns are credited with pushing the smoking rate to historic lows of 15.5%for adults and 12.6% for high schoolers. So honest uncut scare tactics seem to have influence on the viewing public.
Let me set the scene: Two young girls, around ten years old are climbing on a single set of monkey bars, inverting themselves in the middle side by side. The pair’s of long hair dangling from the two young faces which are smiling and giggling. One slips and suddenly a young girl lays unconscious in the grass after falling off the monkey bars. Her friend terrified calls out for help. She becomes more and more worried, screaming for help; trying to wake her friend but unable to do so. Looking around in all directions for someone, any one. Should she stay with her friend or should she try to find help, she doesn’t know what to do. Filled with terror to the point she is making her self sick, the tears fill her eyes and overflow down her cheek. Barely able to muster the word help through her hysterical crying. The friend picks up the girls limp arm in attempts to pull her Saying “come on sally wake up”. The camera pans out showing the immensity of the field that surrounds the single monkey bars.
*Fades to black*
“What if no one came to help when your child needed it the most” a voice says ”show appreciation this EMS week for those who do come to help”
ok so I’m not screen writing genius or the next advertising savant, but you get the point. This should be the EMS week theme, use scare tactics like NYS stop smoking ads to get people to realize what we do and the service we give to the public.
So what do you think? Would it change a thing? Should it be more graphic?
