NAB Reminds Us Not to Toss Squish-Toys at the Help

It's always a little difficult to gauge the quality of advertising from other countries, but "Don't Disturb the Ones Working" -- an ad for the Norwegian Association of the Blind -- really threw us for one.

In it, a handful of perplexed service workers are interrupted mid-job by clueless passersby, which either pay them infantile compliments ("Aww, what a cutie!") or try getting them to do tricks. For example, one game-faced dad pulls out a round squidgy ball and tries making a bus driver play catch.

"Don't disturb the ones working," the screen warns us at ad's end. And as a seeing eye dog is clad in vest and mantle before going about its work, a second message adds, "vest on = at work."

The whole "vest" thing ties into how service workers wear vests while on duty, much like seeing-eye dogs, which have a job to perform that supersedes the standard roll-over, play-dead. So tossing a stick at these dogs, or even reaching out to pet them, is like inappropriately distracting your fellow union member -- something you can do, but only at great risk to the fragile tapestry of Norwegian society.

Hrm. A gentle, if quirky, way to get well-meaning pet-lovers to think twice about tossing that Snausage. By agency Try/Oslo.