Beware the hand!

Warning: This post has scary images that are not suitable for the young or the faint at heart. Unless you are Singaporean, that is.

This image is what greets members of the general public these days. At train stations, bus stands, on the side walks and just about everywhere. The latest horror offering from Hollywood? An otherwise normal hand by the day morphs into this creepy one on full moon nights and attacks the city, striking terror among residents. The local priest knows it is the work of the spirit of a young girl that got killed last summer while camping in the woods under very unpleasant circumstances. The cops have closed the case as "Unsolved". This priest knows just what it takes to bring it to an end. He makes a bullet by melting the dead girl's silver pendant and together with the help of a smart guy and an extremely good looking girl, slay it in the grave yard after much blood and gore, you say. Possible, smart reader. But wrong.

The above image is the face of (hand of?) the Health Promotion Board's rather subtle campaign against, what else, the H1N1 virus. To promote washing hands as the first line of defense against the virus. These images started popping up, I'd say, nearly a month back when the virus threat was beginning to take hold. As of last night, there are over a thousand suspected cases of the virus here alone. And a line of child pyschiatrists at the BMW showroom. So much for choosing scare tactics to spread awareness. Here is a second image with more context. A picture is worth a thousand cases, I suppose.

Now, I'm no expert on creating such posters with graphic images. But I'm sure that the HPB would have spent a small fortune on coming up with the above masterpiece. But my question is, why reinvent the wheel? Why re-create when you can reuse? If the concern is to safeguard against germs from beyond your shores, a quick search would have yielded good results that convey the message just as effectively. Like this, for example.

Stop the horror with some common sense and punching the right key (in 2014)!

(Image courtesy: Kon Jirjo's media works for APCC)