ABC 11 Accuweather Alert: Try not to die
I was watching “I Survived A Japanese Gameshow” last night during a serious thunderstorm that passed over Raleigh. Never ones to shy away from a chance to use on-screen advertisements, the crack team at ABC 11 was right there with important updates which crawled incessantly across the bottom of the screen enclosed by their not-so-understated ABC 11 Accuweather Alert graphic, which of course obscured all of the English subtitles of the show.
It took me a minute, however, to realize what sage advice they were able to put together on such short notice. Observe:
The full text of the message (regarding a flash flood warning) was this:
“If flood conditions are encountered, be prepared to seek higher ground. If traveling remember turn around, don’t drown.”
You can imagine my relief to see this critical piece of information scrolling repeatedly across my TV for several hours. Thank goodness I wasn’t traveling! My first instinct would have certainly been to drown myself! Thank you ABC 11 Accuweather Alert!
July 10th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I’ll store that invaluable piece of advice away in my memory. I’ll categorize it under “Things Not to Forget” along with other such nuggets as “Be kind, rewind,” “leaflets three, let it be,” and “If you see a tiger, get on a bus or something.”
July 10th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
What about those little cartoon-lets they used to show between Saturday morning programs? The ones with the dancing cartoons singing us important messages like “Don’t drown your food! In mayo, salt, ketchup, or goop!” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfEG15CLTqo) and “Exercise your choppers, really chew, chew, chew!”
And what about the timeless moral messages from GI Joe? You know, “You didn’t take anything from our tent, did you?”
July 10th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Reward yourself with a nice shiny quarter.
July 11th, 2008 at 7:06 am
I just realized that the girl in the picture looks like she’s really thinking about throwing herself at the mercy of the flood. Ironically, she had indeed just moments before pedaled a tricycle into a large tub of ice water. You can see that her hair is wet. I think she’s looking back at the tub and wistfully contemplating what it might be like to submit to it’s liquid embrace.
July 11th, 2008 at 9:21 am
That’s funny, because I thought she looked like she was trying to pull of a left-cheek sneak without the guy next to her noticing.
July 11th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
So did anyone forget to turn around and ultimately drown? I especially worry about those poor saps watching the ticker on channel 5, a channel known for it’s less-than-accu-weather advice.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Actually the local channel 5 in Raleigh had a good ticker as well…. it went something like:
“Tornado warning in effect for Wake County. If driving your vehicle, please pull over and lie down face first in a ditch”
In my opinion, if someone is watching TV and driving at the same time, they have bigger dangers.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
What worries me more, Suz, is that they expected someone who was currently traveling to actually see the alert. Perhaps it should have said, “If you can see this while traveling, turn off your TV and watch the road, you idiot!”
July 11th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
OOOOH! Javamonkeyhead beat me to it!
July 11th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I give Javamonkeyhead 8 out of 11 flying cows for that one.