Read time: 4 min.

I know all about pneumatics and plumbing from pizza robots, but I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know anything about how electricity works. It’s pretty much magic as far as I know, which makes me a prime candidate to be zapped into oblivion next time I go sticking my nose where it’s doesn’t belong. Fortunately, rubes like me have Mr. Ouch to protect us. Nice to meet you, sir! I’ll remember your warning well.

I’m fortunate not to have stumbled across electricity, or anything else truly hazardous, much up close. I’ve spent most of my life working in offices where my only encounter with a safety warning was a paper shredder emblazoned with a crossed-out necktie.

All that changed when I started working at a factory during the pandemic. The plant was old, the machines were arbitrary, and the tinplate we stamped into Ball jar lids was sharp. Many dangers lurk around the corner while thirty-ton presses go to work! Nevertheless, I admit to yawning my way through the mandatory quizzes our safety guy put us through.

Then we covered iconography. The exclamation mark signifying chemical irritants was surprisingly sedate, but the skull-and-crossbones, gas cylinders, and exploding bomb symbols grabbed my attention! From that point on, I kept a vigilant eye out for skulls, cylinders, and explosives each time I crossed the production floor.  

I kept the practice up as the planner at my next factory job. I never found any bombs, bones, or anthropomorphic exclamation points, but that’s where I met Mr. Ouch. Perhaps the best way to describe him is as alarming and hilarious. Mr. Ouch is depicted as a menacing mollusk of electricity gleefully using his lightning tentacles to toss the helpless body of a hapless kid away towards a painful demise. 

I’m not sure whether Mr. Ouch is supposed to be a hero for saving lives or evil for torching the kid in the warning label, but every villain worth his salt has an origin story. Mr. Ouch’s began in 1981 when several member companies of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association started looking into ways to prevent kids from being electrocuted.

Warning labels already existed, but they were insufficient. Some kids couldn’t read, and others weren’t fazed by the generic graphics then in use¹. Worried about its legal liability, the NEMA sought a more effective way to alert kids to the dangers of high-voltage electricity.

Eventually, a committee called the Task Force on Safety Labels for Pad-Mounted Switchgear and Transformers Sited in Public Areas was entrusted to come up with a safety label that even the youngest children could recognize, understand, and avoid². After the NEMA task force built consensus among transformer manufacturers, it commissioned Agnew Moyer Smith of Pittsburg to design a group of symbols

The pictograms were the focal point of focus groups administered by George R. Frerichs & Associates of Chicago³. After several rounds winnowing away graphics that weren’t impactful, two groups of English- and non-English-speaking kids in Chicago and San Antonio associated a pictogram depicting “Mr. Lightning” most with danger. 

Mr. Lightning evolved into Mr. Ouch, who eventually became the first warning label system developed and standardized by an industry⁴. What Mr. Yuck is for poison, Mr. Ouch is for electrical infrastructure! More than forty years later, he’s still in business. I both chuckled quietly and stepped away from the humming transformer shortly I spied him. Despite his audacious appearance, Mr. Ouch certainly still gets his point across!

Sources Cited
1 Ross, K. (1983, October). The Story of MR. OUCH – Creation of a warning label. Product Liability International. Journal. 
2 Safety Labels for Pad-Mounted Switchgear and Transformers Sited in Public Areas (1996-2019). The National Electrical Manufacturers Association [Rosslyn]. Book.
3 Final Evaluation of FourRevised Safety Pictograms for Pad-Mount Cabinets (1982, February 22). George R. Frerichs & Associates [Chicago]. Report. 
4 Cooper, J & Kottha, A. (2011, Spring). Conflicting Issues Regarding Warning Labels May Be Hazardous to Your Company’s Health. In-House Defense Quarterly [Chicago].  Journal.