Hasta La Creative!

This PSA by AMV BBDO for the British Coast Guard, titled “Every Second Counts,” pairs Hallmarky imagery of children playing on the beach with audio from a frantic 999 emergency call in which three children were being dragged into the water by a powerful undertow.

“Conditions on our coastline change in seconds,” the ad warns.

Many ads like this would have included footage of those changing conditions. But in some ways, keeping things quietly sunny and calm is even more jarring against the terror of the audio, and reinforce the point better than added drama would have.