The earliest PIFs were made during the Second World War years and shown in cinemas; many were made by and starred Richard Massingham, an amateur actor who set up Public Relationship Films Ltd when he discovered there was no specialist film company in the area. They were commissioned by the Ministry of Information. After the war PIFs were produced for the Central Office of Information, and again by private contractors which were usually small film companies, such as Richard Taylor Cartoons.
They are still being produced although they are rarely shown in the same frequency as their peak in the 1970s. Some believe modern PIFs are not as hard-hitting as they should be and have suffered due to political correctness. If the messages are not hard-hitting enough then the message can be lost considering older PIFs aimed at children (and adults) relied quite strongly on "scaring them straight" and the message remained with a child right through into adulthood, although recent drink-driving and anti -smokingPIFs have bucked this trend.
Some advertisements and charity appeals have gained the status of honorary PIF among fans, including Cartoon Boy, a 2002 campaign about child abuse produced by the NSPCC, and a 1980s British Gas advertisement about what to do in the event of a gas leak.
PIF's have a nostalgic cult following and a DVD was released in 2001 called Charley Says: The Greatest Public Information Films in the World, comprising the contents of two earlier VHS releases. A sequelwas released in 2005.
Sourse:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_information_film
