A public service announcement for a captive audience
Posted by ampontan on Wednesday, October 15, 2008
MARSHALL MCLUHAN BECAME FAMOUS for introducing the concept that the medium is the message. Mr. McLuhan is unlikely to have considered the possibility this medium would be combined with this message, however.
As the photo shows, the Hakodate Office of the Hokkaido police department has created special toilet paper with printed messages cautioning users against the ore-ore (“It’s me, it’s me”) telephone scam. That’s a type of fraud in which the grifter cons the recipient of the call into depositing money into his bank account by impersonating a relative (or a policeman or another official supposedly attending to that relative) in serious trouble and in need of immediate cash.
This toilet paper medium has several messages, two of which are: “Don’t go to the ATM right away”, and “Be careful of stories that sound too good.” The designers also included a picture of a squid to create a Japanese language pun. The word for “squid” is ika, and the word for “don’t go” is ikanaide. The message combines the picture of the squid with the “naide” written in one of the Japanese alphabets to create a type of rebus.
The police gave the toilet paper away for no charge at a conference kicking off a regional safety campaign held in Hakodate on the 11th, as well as at local crime prevention seminars. Don’t get your hopes up: It’s not available commercially.
The prefectural police said they thought employing something used every day in the home would be effective for preventing crime. (One wonders what other household items they considered before hitting on the idea of toilet paper,) They also said they purposely tried to create a clever public awareness campaign to combat fraud.
Some people like to take reading material into the loo with them, but toilet paper with a fraud awareness message sounds to me like an excellent excuse to buy a bidet.
At least that way, the medium would offer a massage instead of a message!
Bonus information!
A look at the Hakodate website reveals that the city sent a delegation to the 4th Star-Shaped Citadel Cities Summit at Hellevoetsluis, The Netherlands, conducted from 8-11 July.
The first summit was held at Hakodate in 1997. Here’s that website.
Is there an international institute somewhere that offers government officials special instruction in ingenious but pointless ways to spend public funds?
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RMilner said
I believe it is accepted that part of the perks of being in government are the “beanos” and “jollies” of being sent on fact finding trips and international liaison missions.
Just as business executives receive large amounts of free air miles for their international travel on company expense.
ampontan said
“accepted that part of the perks of being in government”
Accepted by whom? There are many people who never have and never will “accept” it. Most people just put up with it because they figure they don’t have a choice. Taxes are to fund government operations, not European vacations.
The business executive argument is a false dichotomy. Companies have to work to make things or perform services in exchange for people giving them money voluntarily. What happens to that money afterwards is their business. They earned it by working for it. If what they do is unnecessary or unwanted, their position ceases to exist.
That’s not what happens in the public sector, ever.
It is unlikely to ever happen, but one simple step would cause the biggest revolution Western-style democracies have ever seen, and it would happen almost immediately.
End the withholding of salaries applicable to the income tax. Give the entire salary to the employee on payday.
And then have the government submit a bill for tax payments monthly, like the gas and electric and the phone bill. Payable by check or bank account transfer.
The “beanos” and “jollies” would evaporate so quickly it would probably cause a sonic boom.
Ken said
“As the photo shows, the Hakodate Office of the Hokkaido police department has created special toilet paper with printed messages cautioning users against the ore-ore (“It’s me, it’s me”) telephone scam.”
This kind of fraud probably can prosper only to Japanese who are easily to be deceived like ‘comfort women swindle’.
They are ‘Easy riders’!
RMilner said
You and I are worldly wise enough to know that this kind of thing has always gone and always will, despite efforts to prevent it. Not that we should ignore it, as that tends to allow it to proliferate.
The business executive argument is not a dichotomy. The air miles racked up by flying business class are earned on travel payments charged (sometimes indirectly via expenses) to the company’s account, and rightfully belong to the shareholders.
bender said
Star-Shaped Citadel Cities Summit
Sounds awfully unimportant and trivial, if you ask me.