Roberta J. WittyEarlier this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced on their web site “The Blog @ Homeland Security” that they have partnered with Wal-Mart to further promote DHS’ campaign of “If You See Something, Say Something”. Tagged “Hometown Security”, the video of Janet Napolitano, Security of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security advises Wal-Mart shoppers to say something to the police, sheriff or Wal-Mart management if they see something suspicious taking place in the parking lot or store. Not bad advice when you come to think of it.
But isn’t it obvious to do so? Are Americans THAT removed, resigned, scared, numb or distrustful to take action on what we inherently know as something “fishy”? Or, is DHS taking a page from a prior era with the major marketing success of “Smokey Bear” for fire prevention?
Depending on how Wal-Mart rolls out the program, shoppers may not even notice the announcement. I know for myself, as soon as I enter a store, I bypass anything and everything – notices, greeters and so forth – that distracts me from getting my shopping finished. It’s a rare occasion for me to lollygag. And putting diapers next to the milk has absolutely no effect on me – maybe because I don’t shop for either. But I have my list and that’s what I buy.
DHS has already rolled out “If You See Something, Say Something” in transportation environments, but in many of those forums, you are typically a captive audience – you can’t easily get off the subway to avoid the message.
What do you think? Would you notice the announcement in a store? Would you take time out of your busy life to watch it? Are there better ways for DHS to consumer-enable the message? Let me know: I’m of two minds on this one: national security is of utmost importance but is the message channel the right approach?
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2 Jay Heiser December 9, 2010 at 12:37 pm
Isn’t this similiar to many situations we confront in the enterprise? Piggybacking, for instance. How many organizations truly enforce rules that when an employee swipes their card to enter a door, they must actively prevent anyone from following them thru the door without swiping their card? Most organizations are also unable to enforce rules about confronting people who are not wearing ID. ‘Default suspicion’ rules are contrary to human nature.
There are a couple ways to create a culture of suspicion. If the stakes are perceived as being high, people will do it out of a sense of patriotic duty. In a police state, people will do it out of fear. I doubt if most people feel that the stakes are high when considering the liklihood of bombs in Wal-marts.
Aren’t there also some parallels in the airport color alerting scheme? Airports around the USA are still sporting signs that say ‘the alert level has been raised to Orange’ like it just happened yesterday, instead of 9 years ago. This notification is followed by a request to inform an authority if you see something suspicious. If the alert level was yellow, would you not tell someone if you think you see a bomb?