Graphic UK PSAs: We Need These in the States

Last night, I was watching NBC when Brian Williams reported on the controversy over this new anti-texting while driving spot from the UK. It’s not even showing on the tube in the States, but people here are watching it online, and that was apparently enough to warrant a mention on the most-watched nightly news in the country. Now, this spot is graphic and upsetting for sure, but you know what else is graphic and upsetting? Kids getting killed because they’re glued to their cell phones when they should be looking at the road. And the idea that Americans would be offended by graphic violence in the name of safety, when folks are regularly shown getting murdered and autopsied for entertainment—see NCIS, Law and Order, CSI—is utterly ridiculous. Personally, I think we should have spots like this here, even though the cynic in me says we’re so immune to brutal violence they wouldn’t do any good. What do you think?