Government ramps up the scare tactics

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Feb19.html

 

The Homeland Security Department unveiled a major new advertising campaign yesterday that uses television, radio, newspapers and billboards to urge Americans to prepare for possible terrorist attacks and educate themselves about the differences between chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

 

The highly polished campaign, which begins today in some cities, features New York City firefighters and police officers encouraging the public to take the terrorist threat seriously without panicking.

 

The campaign conveys much the same information as homeland security officials publicized at a news conference Feb.10. But the earlier announcement generated confusion and concern because of a recommendation that people consider buying duct tape and plastic sheeting to construct safe rooms in their homes as a precaution against a chemical attack.

 

Last week's announcement was hurriedly scheduled three days after the government raised the terrorist threat level to "high risk," and was not as carefully scripted as the full-blown public education project announced yesterday. Called the "Ready Campaign," it was a year in the planning -- including intensive consultation with focus groups -- and will last for years, U.S. officials said.

 

"Terrorists seek to turn our neighborhoods into battlefields," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in a speech yesterday in Cincinnati announcing the ads. "That is why individual citizens have an important role to play."

 

Ridge's agency organized the campaign with the Advertising Council, which coordinates $1.5 billion a year in public service announcements, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which does research on civil preparedness. Advertising industry officials said television and radio stations, as well as newspapers, billboard companies and other businesses likely will make available at least $80 million in free advertising for the campaign.

 

The industry members of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America will donate $18 million in free space, and the companies that are part of the Yellow Pages Integrated Media Association will provide $30 million worth of advertising space in 550 million telephone directories in the next year, said Ad Council President Peggy Conlon.

 

A main goal of the ads is to steer Americans to the department's civil preparedness Web site, www.ready.gov, or to the phone number 1-800-237-3239, where people can arrange to receive brochures.

 

The Web site and other literature detail how people should respond before and after various types of terrorist strikes, with sections on such topics as "Make an Emergency Kit," "Creating a Family Plan," "Deciding to Stay or Go," "In a Moving Vehicle" and "In a High-Rise Building."

 

The goal is to allow members of the public to take in the information at their own pace and to absorb the message that an attack is possible, but without panicking them, officials said. Ultimately, officials want Americans to outline family plans for emergencies and to feel comfortable turning to the U.S. government for advice.

 

"The campaign is a good thing, and it will be welcome," said Tara O'Toole, a Johns Hopkins University expert on bioterrorism preparedness and a critic of the Bush administration's terrorist planning work until now.

 

O'Toole, who was an Energy Department official under President Bill Clinton, added that the government's shifting of terrorist alert levels, and what she believes were U.S. officials' inconsistent comments about the 2001 anthrax attacks, have "created cynicism and anxiety in the public" that the new ad campaign might start to reduce.

 

The TV and radio commercials -- which are 15 to 60 seconds -- were designed free by a Richmond-based ad company, the Martin Agency, which created, among other marketing campaigns, United Parcel Service's commercials that feature Mahoney, a short pants-clad deliveryman. "We were trying to strike a balance, creating urgency without creating fear," said Martin vice president Ken Hines, who designed the campaign. After heavy testing of themes and messages with focus groups, "we realized the points had to be made by people who were the most credible, and they emerged as Tom Ridge himself and also firefighters, police officers and Port Authority officers from New York, because of their experiences," Hines said.

 

The ad people had the New York officers read prepared lines from teleprompters, and then let the cameras roll as they spoke extemporaneously about the dangers of terrorism and the need to prepare for it. Those were the moments that appear in the television and radio ads.

 

"They felt so strongly, and got so stirred up about it, they came across very powerfully," Hines said.

 

Homeland security officials had planned this rollout for months, but when the terrorist alert was raised to "high" Feb. 7, they concluded it would be irresponsible to withhold from the public the information in the still-evolving campaign.

 

They held a news briefing Feb. 10 to draw attention to existing Web sites that contain some of the same advice. But a department official, relatively inexperienced with the news media, included in his list of recommendations purchasing duct tape and plastic, although most experts say these items are unlikely ever to be used and should be characterized as second-tier equipment.

 

"I can say perhaps we could have done things slightly differently" in hindsight, one U.S. official said of the episode.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I watched the announcement of this shit on the news, and they cut to the nailbitingly tense story of a dog stuck on the ice in some river in New Jersey.

 

I wasn't sure which one I cared less about.

 

Better stock up on the duct tape..

[Guest NoCalMike]

Why does the government feel we are going to be getting attacked on a daily basis now? Just 6 - 8 months ago we were told to keep living our normal lives and go out and buy something because that would solve everything. If my town is nuked, then duct tape and "precautions" aren't gonna save me.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Okay, I missed this original statement obviously, but I've heard jokes about it EVERYWHERE.

 

What's the deal with duct tape?

[Guest Retro Rob]

When a bomb is dropped on us, putting tape around your windows will stop the radiation and germs from getting in your house, or something like that. It will also of course greatly diminish the air flow in your house.

 

IMO, this is just a modern version of "Hide under you desk and close eyes when we are nuked, this way the radiation won't fry your retina".

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

So it was just as stupid as I thought.

 

Since I wasn't really old enough to notice and I know there's at least one or two people around here who were, did the government tell us on a daily basis that the Soviets were going to nuke us until our soil turned to glass?

[Guest Vern Gagne]

Yes. Back in the 50's and 60's. Schools had drills where kids would hide under their desks.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Yes, back in the 50s and 60s, but after that there really wasn't AS much fear about it, was there? My point is that sure we were wary and afraid immediately after the attacks (like the 50s and 60s at the start of the Atomic Age), but now we're settling back to normal and living our lives again (1970 or so onwards) and they aren't letting us.

[Guest Some Guy]

They said that if a chemical weapon is used that putting platic sheeting and duct tape on the windows of ONE ROOM in your house might help out. They didn't say to wrap your whole house in the shit, like that dipshit in Conn did.

It's a little silly, but such is life.

 

Rob, when you mentioned the hiding under the desks thing it reminded me of a joke my girlfriend's dad told me. He's from Russia (drafted into the military naturally) and the joke was something like this (translated from his thick accent):

 

"If a nuke were to be dropped on Russia you are supposed to trun your back to the explosion and hold your rifle barrel up. Because if you hold it barrel down the bullet might fall out and break your toe."

[Guest Samurai_Goat]

Hey, they had a good reason for hiding under the desks in case of nuke attacks!

 

It was so the janitors knew where to clean up the dust.

[Guest Some Guy]

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Yes, back in the 50s and 60s, but after that there really wasn't AS much fear about it, was there?

I've talked to my dad about this a lot.

 

Appearantly it wasn't as much fear, as it was accepted that someday, a nuclear bomb was going to fall and kill you and your entire neighborhood. Morbid, but pretty much accepted by all the kids as fate or destiny or what have you.

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

Typed this whole thing in by hand for you bitches.

 

From "Our Dumb Century," The Onion for August 12, 1952

 

Pentagon Develops A-Bomb Resistant Desk

Schoolchildren Now Safe from Atomic Blas, Desks Will Be Standard Issue for all U.S. Public Schools by 1955

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - In a scientific breakthrough with far-reaching implications in light of current tensions between the U.S. and Russia, U.S. Seceretary of Defens Charles Wilson announced Tuesday that Civil Defense Authority scientists have successfully developed a school desk that is impervious to atomic attack.

 

"Should the U.S.S.R. choose to drop the atom bomb on the United States, our nation's children would merely have to hide under their school desks, and they would be safe," Wilson said. "Everything in the surrounding 10-mil radius, including hospitals, homes, grocery stores and loved ones, would be instantly incinerated, vaporized in three-millionths of a second from the searing heat of the atomic blast. But the children would be unharmed."

 

If an A-bomb were detected entering a school's air space, Wilson said, the school's principal would sound a special nuclear-attack alarm, indicating that all students should seek shelter under their desks.

 

A single prototype of the revolutionary new desk was developed by the Pentagon over the past two years at a cost of $600 million. Constructed of varnished hardwood and with hollow metal legs, it also features an inkwell, a surface indent to curb pencil slippage, and an inside compartment with plenty of room to store notebooks, pens and Civil Defense rations for use during times of atomic war.

 

Pending congressional approval, 50 million desks - one for each student in the U.S. - will be constructed by 1955. The only drawback is the cost of the project: $30 quadrillion. According to Wilson, however, it is "a cost America cannot afford not to pay."

 

"Until the Cold War is won, we must take every possible step to protect ourselves and our children from the Red Menace, and if that means a $600 million, bomb-resistant school desk for every child, so be it," Wilson said. "Our children must be free to learn their ABCs secure in the knowledge that, should the Kremlin decide to launch an attack on their school, they will not be harmed."

 

Wilson praised the device, but cautioned that it is only effective if used properly.

 

To this end, officials have produced an Army-style training film for use in schools nationwide to explain the complex operating proceedures for the desks.

 

With the help of a cartoon-turtle mascot named "Bert," the intricate instructions of the film are relayed in the title song, "Duck and Cover."

 

Said Chief Pentagon Engineer Dr. Ralph Tessmer, head of the team that developed the desk, "The child must physically duck under the desk in order for it's one-inch-thick wooden surface to function as a shield against the million-degree heat of an atomic explosion."

 

Teemer also said that, if a bomb is dropped, children must make sure their arms and legs are completely underneath the desks. "Any limbs that protrude from underneath the desks will be vaporized in the event of a Russian attack," he cautioned.

 

The nation's schoolchildren seem to be getting the message already. Fifth-grader Polly Abacrombie of Scranton, Penn., said "If I see the flash of the A-bomb, I just duck-and-cover!"

[Guest Some Guy]

That was from the Onion. It's not real news.

 

I think the desk thing was in case the bomb didn't blow uo the building but shock it and caused shit to fall. The desk migh protect you from this, like standing in a doorway during an earthquake.

 

But it's fun to goof on things out of context, so let's keep it up. Heard any good Duct Tape jokes lately?

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

That was from the Onion. It's not real news.

THANK YOU CAPTAIN OBVIOUS

 

You're kidding me! I guess my whole world is falling apart now... I really thought "Terrorist complains of flight delay" was a real headline! Damn!

[Guest Some Guy]

I've seen people post stuff from the Onion as real news here before. Just saying is all.

 

Damn my sig is pissing me off!