This is what the Emergency Alert test in my area looks like:
Two colors. Fixed width. Old school. Shit is going down, people, no time for graphics or kerning.
That’s why I was surprised to see this on my screen when I heard the familiar sounds of the Emergency Alert system ths past week:
It’s the CBS-specific version of the Emergency Alert graphic. Evidently, CBS feels that a graphic that evokes a city burning down is enough to make us perk up and pay attention. It's interesting that "This is a test of the" is in a smaller font. So, when it is a real event, what happens? They leave off the top line? Perhaps the letters are red too?
I'm concerned that people are going to become habituated to the above EAS message, because the graphic is too much like a commercial. That, and because there have been a number of false alerts in this new-fangled Emergency ALERT System - six in twenty years, as opposed to the original Emergency BROADCAST System, which plugged away for over thirty years with just one mistake. Which sounded like this.
It's all too easy to ignore. The tornado sirens go off once a month. so we ignore those. Even the Emergency Presidential Text Alert they debuted this past October sounds too much like an Amber Alert.
I think they should do what the cable company did when there was a tornado three miles from my house: make the screen go black and only show only the block printed words "THERE IS A TORNADO IN YOUR AREA. TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY." No weather reporters anymore, no map, nothing to see but the marching orders.
I fear no one would listen unless all the TVs and all the iPhones and all the Applebee's digital menu screens went black with all-caps white letters that say "THIS IS NOT A TEST."
I do not ignore tornado sirens (because *tornado sirens* - around here, they are very loud and also they mean business unless it is the monthly test) but yes, anything that blinks at me from my computer I am more or less habituated to ignore/close unless it's really frying out the screen - I assume the same would be true for a TV, if I had a TV.
I do think the old-school fairly-ugly thing works better than Graphic Designed thing, however (at least as long as savvy advertisers don't catch on and start imitating it).
And yes, blacking out the screen with the message in white (or red, I'm not picky) in a very readable but not attractive font seems like a great way of communicating, as long as one is not simultaneously trying to communicate "we are a very savvy and cool organization!" which, honestly, if you are communicating potentially life-saving information and expressing your identity is getting in the way of that, maybe *drop* the strategic branding push for a wee bit? But that's me.
Posted by: KC | February 10, 2019 at 05:05 PM
KC - I, on the other hand, defied tornado sirens until several houses on our street were taken out by a tornado five or six years ago. (The black and white message from the cable company made me cocky, and I figured if they weren
t sending me a B&W personal message that I was safe..)
Posted by: theQueen | February 11, 2019 at 03:01 PM
,,, I *might* be more risk-averse than you are? Wild guess. (I am *definitely* more risk-averse than Gary - dude takes his life in his hands at 2am!)
(personally, I figure that since tornadoes move more quickly than I do, by the time they have a "okay, yes, a tornado is 50% likely to hit you" pinpoint, then that would probably be too late for me to get anywhere safe. So I'm okay with heading to shelter occasionally even though the odds of our house being hit and destroyed are low.)
Posted by: KC | February 12, 2019 at 11:28 AM
KC - well, I live a mile away from the actual weather radar location, so if anything on radar hits the middle of the doppler image I know it is a about a mile away, and I can get down the basement stairs in seconds.
Posted by: theQueen | February 13, 2019 at 02:39 PM