The Shopper Product Security Fee’s new album options a few of its iconic mascots on the duvet and 7 safety-focused tracks.
U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
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U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
The Shopper Product Security Fee’s new album options a few of its iconic mascots on the duvet and 7 safety-focused tracks.
U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
The federal company chargeable for selling the protection of client merchandise has employed loads of ways through the years, from recollects to rules to PSAs.
Now, the Shopper Product Security Fee is making an attempt a brand new — and catchier — strategy: It is launched an album.
We’re Security Now Have not We packs in six genre-spanning, safety-focused songs (seven should you rely the one which additionally received a Spanglish model). There’s an EDM banger about carrying helmets, a Ok-pop quantity about firework security, and even a reggaeton monitor about smoke alarms. The artists are formally nameless, however extra on that later.
The album is particularly focused at youngsters and younger adults, Social Media Specialist Joseph Galbo advised NPR’s Morning Version over Zoom.
He says the CPSC aimed to deal with the merchandise and hazards which might be particularly prevalent amongst folks ages 13-24 based mostly on its damage knowledge — together with bikes, ATVs, fireworks, cooking home equipment and telephones.
Many individuals do not begin to actually take into consideration product security till they’ve children of their very own, Galbo provides. However excessive school- and college-aged children are making their very own choices on a regular basis, usually with out considering via the potential penalties.
“One of many issues we wish to do with this album is simply form of present younger folks a reminder that, ‘Hey, it is essential to put on a helmet once you’re driving a motorcycle. And should you do it, you will be in a greater place to dwell a more healthy and safer life,'” Galbo stated. “It is essential to keep in mind that once you’re strolling along with your telephone to lookup so you do not fall down a manhole cowl or by accident stroll into site visitors or one thing.”
The songs tackle a few of the most typical sources of damage amongst younger adults, together with distracted telephone utilization.
U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
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U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
The songs tackle a few of the most typical sources of damage amongst younger adults, together with distracted telephone utilization.
U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
The album may be discovered on the CPSC’s web site and YouTube channel as of Wednesday. Galbo says the company ultimately hopes to get it on Apple Music, Spotify and ideally enjoying on radio stations, too. Plus, all the songs are within the public area, so folks can obtain, remix and repost them from there.
Galbo says he is excited to see what folks do with the music. He hopes listeners will achieve a greater understanding of the easy modifications that would probably save their lives — and the company that makes that its mission.
“We hope you take heed to the music and we hope you have got loads of enjoyable with it,” he added. “And once more, simply to let you realize, we’re at all times right here for you should you ever have to report an unsafe product.”
YouTube
An summary of the songs (however it is best to hear for your self)
A number of the songs are extra express of their security messaging than others.
“You gotta put your telephone away, concentrate,” blares a techno track about distracted telephone utilization, which despatched a mean of 5,100 folks between 13-24 to the emergency room every year between 2013 and 2022.
“Helmet… goggles… boots… jacket,” intones the EDM monitor about ATVs, which had been concerned in some 36,000 such accidents in that age group throughout that very same time interval.
“Helmets are a one-time use product and impacts can lower their effectiveness/You might not even see harm/Cracks within the shell, worn straps, and lacking pads or elements are additionally causes to interchange a helmet,” raps the bridge of hip-hop monitor “Shield Ya Noggin,” which the artist additionally recorded in Spanish.
One in all two songs stressing the significance of helmets was additionally recorded in “Spanglish.”
U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
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U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
One in all two songs stressing the significance of helmets was additionally recorded in “Spanglish.”
U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
It is no coincidence that two of the songs are about carrying helmets. A mean of 212,000 younger folks had been injured in incidents associated to bikes, scooters, e-bikes, skateboards and different such micro mobility gadgets between 2013 and 2022, per the CPSC, with head accidents among the many most typical.
A number of the extra delicate tracks embody “Going Off Like Fireworks” and “Se Pon Caliente,” which might nearly be mistaken to your run-of-the-mill, love-struck pop songs.
“I do know I am messing with a deadly warmth/And I ought to stroll away and let or not it’s/However we lightin’ sparks with our power,” sings the Ok-Pop group about fireworks, which injured some 3,170 younger folks between 2013 and 2022.
“And I am unable to get sufficient/I imply it once I say/I am cautious of your love/As a result of our love is a flame,” a reggaeton artist sings of unattended cooking, the primary supply of house fires.
There’s additionally a lofi monitor referred to as “Beats To Chill out/Be Secure To” — presumably a play on this common stream. It is interspersed with samples of a kid saying “what’s that?” and “higher,” and a person’s voice asking “Effectively, how a few marshmallow?”
That comes from an outdated PSA from the company’s early years within the Seventies, Galbo explains. In it, character actor Louis Nye creates a comically unsafe toy for his nephew — an armadillo made out of razor blades and cutlery. When the nephew expresses concern, Nye suggests a surprisingly prescient different.
“We needed to form of dig again into our personal historical past a bit of bit for that monitor,” Galbo stated. “It was form of humorous taking a look at a PSA that was made 50 years in the past the place the protagonist is suggesting making a marshmallow as a toy. And right here in the present day, these kinds of ‘mallow’ toys are one of the common you’ll find.”
The album title and canopy are themselves a wealthy textual content
There are a number of different clues that this is not your common musical album. This consists of the “warning” label on the duvet and the truth that each track begins with a person’s voice saying “because of the folks at CPSC.”
Galbo explains that all the company’s public messaging should be labeled as such, even in audio type. And it determined to try this with a pattern of narration from an outdated tutorial video.
Even the title of the album, We’re Security Now Have not We, goals to acknowledge the company’s previous — in addition to its future.
The songs span a wide range of genres, from EDM to reggaetón.
U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
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U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
The songs span a wide range of genres, from EDM to reggaetón.
U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
Galbo says the crew needed to create one thing that “speaks to the without end nature of speaking about security.”
“It is form of a enjoyable play on the previous and in addition having to look ahead, and … the duty that all of us need to make protected selections in our lives, whereas CPSC tries to make it possible for firms are making protected selections with their merchandise,” he added.
Security messaging seems very completely different in 2023 than in 1973, and the album is only one instance. The CPSC has gained a substantial following on X (the platform previously referred to as Twitter) for its informative memes, starring a forged of quirky animal mascots.
A few of them are featured prominently on the album cowl. Potato the canine stands on an ATV, Good-looking Ron is the chicken flying on a smoke alarm, the cat Copernicus Jackson holds a cellular phone and Quinn the quarantine fox is carrying a motorcycle helmet.
“These are form of the massive characters that we predict folks have come to acknowledge on our social media platforms, and so we needed to make it possible for they had been entrance and middle on this album,” Galbo stated. “We might have simply slapped our emblem on there actually massive, however we thought this might be much more enjoyable.”
It took lower than a 12 months to create what they’re calling ‘Quantity 1’
The CPSC has dabbled in music earlier than. As an illustration, its children’ “Pool Safely” marketing campaign has a track, which Galbo describes as extra of a jingle.
He says the company determined earlier this 12 months it was a great time to spend money on one thing extra longform, given how efficient audio is at spreading messages, particularly on social media.
“As we began diving into the info and seeing what was hurting children in highschool and faculty, we form of walked away like, ‘As a substitute of doing one track or making an attempt to do two songs, let’s simply do six,'” he defined. “I [thought] that may broaden the angle and open us as much as simply reaching children in so many alternative methods.”
From there, the crew went about matching topics with genres and reaching out to musicians from these communities, to make the songs as genuine as potential.
Galbo says the artists are from everywhere in the nation and completely different cultural backgrounds. The artists are staying nameless as a way to hold the main target solely on the music and messaging. He describes lots of them as having a small following however an outsized influence, and says one or two are “pretty well-known.”
Lots of the artists featured on the venture labored with main shoppers earlier than, he provides, however that is the primary time any had been approached by a authorities company. They began by speaking via what a great security track seems like, seeking to examples of instructional music like Schoolhouse Rock!.
The lofi monitor “Beats to Chill out/Be Secure to” seems based mostly off common learning music and incorporates a PSA from the company’s early years.
U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
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U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
The lofi monitor “Beats to Chill out/Be Secure to” seems based mostly off common learning music and incorporates a PSA from the company’s early years.
U.S. Shopper Product Security Fee
“Creating the lyrics was a extremely enjoyable collaboration the place we despatched them a few of our driest security supplies you’ll be able to think about … after which form of [let] them take it and determine, okay, nicely can this be a track with literal security suggestions or ought to or not it’s one thing a bit of bit extra conceptual?” Galbo defined.
The strategy planning stage lasted from February to June, and manufacturing occurred in July and August. Galbo says an enormous turning level was when the crew received the primary model of the primary track “Shield Your Noggin” — which set the bar so excessive that they really despatched it round to different artists for inspiration.
“I believe for the crew, it turned an actual second of, ‘Oh this may work,'” he stated. “And never solely can this work, however this could possibly be really nice if we put our nostril to the grindstone and actually, actually proceed to work exhausting on it. And the truth that we walked away with six songs that I believe are all equally unimaginable is simply so superior.”
Galbo hopes there might be much more to come back, funding allowing. He is already brainstorming the following quantity — like what an excellent security album would sound like if it is meant for gaming, or carried out dwell with a symphony, for instance.
“Including ‘Quantity 1’ [on the cover] was our playful wager that perhaps if this goes nicely, we’ll get an opportunity to make extra albums sometime,” Galbo added. “And I believe so long as audio continues to be a extremely nice technique to attain younger folks, we must always hold our choices open.”
