It starts like any other safety public service announcement (PSA). Boy meets girl. Boy takes girl on a date. Boy and girl drive to a dark hillside and dance under the stars, then there’s a proposal before a sudden cut to black and a warning about vehicle inspections.
That last part catch you off guard?
It certainly sparked confusion in a lot of people when the Saskatchewan Safety Council first shared the two-minute video to their social media channels on Aug. 7 as part of their vehicle inspection awareness campaign.
“A pre-trip vehicle inspection would’ve saved this moment,” ominous text on the screen says. “One could also save a life.”
What is going on?? What is the moment getting saved? Why are lives at stake?
Did the car roll into the couple, killing them? Did the lights simply go off, preventing them from capturing their engagement on video? Did they get stranded on a bluff outside of Regina? Did the car become possessed by a ghostly spirit, rise up and take its revenge?
No one seems to know, and users responded to the video’s ambiguous ending with concern.
Even the Saskatchewan Safety Council itself doesn’t seem to know.
In a statement to HuffPost Canada, Saskatchewan Safety Council director of development Robert Weitzel said the video was meant to be a “light-hearted metaphorical suggestion that drivers should consider taking a look at their vehicle before driving.”
“It was conceived as a conversation starter that we intend to back up with future videos specific to what should become routine before driving, and that is, having a quick look around your vehicle checking to ensure tires have air in them, that nothing is behind or underneath your vehicle (inclusive of puddles caused by fluid leaks), and that all lights are working before driving,” Weitzel wrote.
He did not explain the mysterious ending, leaving it up to further viewer interpretation.
My big question — the video suggests that a pre-vehicle check would have preventing “this.” Do they mean the marriage? Is the Saskatchewan Safety Council suggesting this couple shouldn’t get married? I mean he did hold a lit sparkler in a donut alarmingly close to her face earlier in the video. That’s worthy of a public safety warning.
Maybe this is really a PSA against marrying a dude who thinks it’s cool to slide down hand-railings. Or against marrying a woman who seems to be wearing her shirt inside-out for the first few scenes??
We’ll never know. Let the resolution — or I guess lack thereof — haunt your dreams.