The Consumer Product Safety Commission has a message for America’s youth: this is not (just) your parents’ bureaucracy.
Many Americans know CPSC for its public service announcements aimed at adults who purchased a recalled baby item, for example, or want to ensure their home is safe for wandering toddlers. The regulatory agency keeps track of leading causes of product-related injuries and deaths for different age groups.
Tweens and teens face equally serious dangers on a daily basis, the agency said. The problem is that young people likely aren’t reading the agency’s press releases or reports.
They are listening to music, though. That’s how “We’re Safety Now Haven’t We, Volume One” was born.
Not unlike the “Schoolhouse Rock” TV public service messages that aired between Saturday morning cartoons and helped educate American children of the 1970s through song, CPSC’s seven-track original album unveiled Sept. 20 uses crafty lyrics and modern styles of music to tell youth to get off their phones while walking, wear a helmet, and keep a functioning smoke alarm in their first apartment or dorm.
Helmet, goggles, boots, jacket // Push the limits, feel the thrill but don’t forget, to keep it real //
Off road adventure, let’s do it right // Stay safe my friends, day and night
It’s deliberately not a jingle like you’d find in old advertisements, the agency said, though some audio motifs from the agency’s older PSAs were recycled, and mascots from the CPSC social media were used for the album artwork: Potato the dog; Copernicus Jackson the cat; Handsome Ron the robin; and Quinn the safety fox.
Even the album’s title is eye-catching for its grammatical quirkiness and mismatched past and present tense. The agency said it’s as if teens used internet-speak to say that product safety is forever and never-ending; CPSC is “safety now,” and always has been.
For details behind the album’s creation, Federal Times interviewed Joe Galbo, social media specialist at CPSC. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Where did this idea for an album come from, and what were the steps to bring it to life?
“One thing we tried to do last year at CPSC was constantly look at who we’re reaching and who we could be doing a better job of reaching. Young people emerged right away as a whole [group] of people who are making safety decisions for themselves everyday in their own lives.
Funding for this came out of the American Rescue Plan, and as staff we proposed to the commissioners a youth outreach campaign. The commissioners approved it around this time last year, actually, for our fiscal year [20]23 operating plan.
Initially, we were thinking that this could be some type of influencer campaign. Once we started talking about trending audio, and how great music can be to reach young people, we settled pretty quickly on ‘OK, we should make an album.’”
And how did your team settle on the safety themes that ultimately made it onto the album?
“We took a look at our national electronic injury surveillance data. That’s a system of hospitals spread out throughout the country who are monitoring emergency room visits for us. Based off that data, we segmented it by the age range of 13 to 24.
From there, some expected things showed up, and then some unexpected things showed up. Something like bike injuries was expected. Fireworks — that’s another one where every year the agency’s doing a lot of research on fireworks. [All-terrain vehicles] — that’s become an emerging hazard, especially for young people.
Part of the project also was about thinking of this audience and wanting to introduce them to the agency for the first time. Something like phones, which was not in the [top] things injuring or killing kids ... is probably the most relevant product for this age range.”
On this album, there’s something for lovers of lo-fi easy listening, reggaeton and hip-hop. What shaped the various genres of music that you decided to feature?
“One thing we know about the younger generation is that it’s incredibly diverse. Right from the get-go it was super important to us that the album tried to appeal to as many different types of people as possible. We always knew we were going to do at least one song in Spanish.
Just trying to be representative and really make an effort to show younger folks the Consumer Product Safety Commission understands who you are, and maybe you’ve never heard of us, maybe you’ve never purchased a recalled product at this point in your life. But at the same time, we have some things to let you know, that ... you could live a longer, healthier, happier life.”
The artists are being kept anonymous on the album, but what can you tell us about them?
“It is a mix of folks who make music for commercials. And then some other folks who are just independent artists — they’re a producer or they’re trying to make it in the music world themselves.”
What does this say about the way agencies can think creatively about building rapport with citizens, especially as public of trust in government is at historic lows? What about for college graduates who are interested in creative work for the government?
“I think the public’s just changed a lot. It’s become OK to do this more more fun, I guess some people would say ‘soft,’ sort of outreach to the public. What we’ve seen at CPSC just from our social media presence over the years is that it actually helps people trust you more and make them want to hear from you more.
I say to [college] kids all the time, if you think the only way to be creative when you get older is to work at an advertising agency and try to make a big Super Bowl commercial ... that’s all fun, and I get it. But at the same time, public service is really incredible, and there’s nothing else like it.”
This is volume one ... is that a subtle promise that there will be a second album?
“We hope that we get a chance to make another one, and I’ve already had a bunch of people ask me, ‘where’s the country music?’ If we ever did get a chance to do this again, it could be really fun to do something that’s like a country, bluegrass, folk music-style album.”
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I know I’m messing with a fatal heat // And I should walk away and let it be // But we lightin sparks with our energy
Molly Weisner is a staff reporter for Federal Times where she covers labor, policy and contracting pertaining to the government workforce. She made previous stops at USA Today and McClatchy as a digital producer, and worked at The New York Times as a copy editor. Molly majored in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
