‘And knowing is half the battle’: revisiting public service announcements and child safety lessons of visual communication from the G.I. JOE animated series

Abstract

This article is a review of the public service announcements (PSAs) disseminated with the G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero cartoon series which aired 95 episodes in the 1980s: 35 PSAs were identified and tabulated. The topics addressed ranged from specific health situations to moral guidance. Most of the PSAs (N = 25, 71.4%) were relevant to childhood safety and reflected the theoretical underpinnings of educational messaging likely to promote the most significant change in children’s health and health communication targeted to children. The G.I. JOE series can serve as an exemplar for the development of contemporary PSAs intended to improve children’s health.