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16 THE OSTRICH, THE AH LONG, THE CON WOMAN, AND THE CREEPY GUY

What is that Ostrich

doing on a crime

prevention poster?

He was known simply as Ostrich when he made his fi rst appearance
in November 2008. Head buried in the sand, Ostrich seemed to
be avoiding a billboard with the message “Low Crime Doesn’t
Mean No Crime”. The next year, more ostriches, all apparently 2008
male from their black and white plumage, showed up with the
same message. But this time, one head stared back at the viewer
with huge eyes, as if to say, yes, I see the message.

That tagline – “Low Crime Doesn’t Mean No Crime” – is perhaps the most
enduring slogan used in a public education campaign in Singapore in the last
three decades. Easily remembered because it is both apparently contrarian
and yet intuitively sensible, it was fi rst introduced by the National Crime
Prevention Council (NCPC) in 1996 to remind people not to let their guard
down during the annual year-end festivities as crime usually went up at that
time of the year.

2009

1996 2006

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