TV Ads Show Impact Of Workplace Tragedies

A series of television ads are aiming to shed light on the true impacts of a workplace tragedy.

WorkSafeNB and the three other workers’ compensation boards in Atlantic Canada teamed up to create the three ads.

Laragh Dooley, a spokesperson with WorkSafeNB, said they are designed to capture the ripple effects of a workplace tragedy.

“We’re really trying to convey that a workplace injury doesn’t just impact the injured worker and their job or their 9-to-5,” said Dooley. “It also affects our families, our friends, our co-workers, our employers, and the community as a whole.”

The 30-second ads tell the stories of three different workplace injuries. Water Fight is about a homecare worker’s struggle with a back injury, The Recital shows a factory worker’s struggle with hearing loss, and Dinner relays the tragic tale of a construction worker’s family coping with his death.

All four provinces began airing the ads last fall and Dooley said they have received quite a bit of positive feedback.

“Both from the general population — we’ve certainly gotten some wonderful comments from them — and we did do a survey to make sure the ads were resonating,” she said.

Dooley says they also partnered with Threads of Life, which supports families after a workplace tragedy, and met with families who have been impacted.

“One of the families had actually lost a loved one in a very similar way to the story that’s depicted in the Dinner ad,” she said.

Dooley said they show the finished ad to the family, who said they had done exactly what was depicted in the story.

“They had set an extra dinner plate for their loved one who isn’t coming home anymore and the wife at that time expressed that she goes to the grocery store and will continue to pick up her husband’s favourite thing because she forgets that he isn’t coming home,” she said.

Workplace accidents and occupational disease resulted in 24 deaths across New Brunswick in 2018.