WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

1
00:00:00.089 --> 00:00:01.010
At the turn of the millennium, ITV,

2
00:00:01.010 --> 00:00:03.860
one of the major British TV channels,

3
00:00:03.860 --> 00:00:06.710
decided to call the year 2000 their Year of
Promise.

4
00:00:06.710 --> 00:00:09.510
They held a massive telethon, the Day of Promise,

5
00:00:09.510 --> 00:00:11.210
not to raise money for charity,

6
00:00:11.210 --> 00:00:13.620
but to get people to call in and promise...
something.

7
00:00:13.620 --> 00:00:18.880
What we want you to do is: we want you to
make a promise.

8
00:00:18.880 --> 00:00:19.860
-- And by doing that, you'll make a mark in
history. -- Absolutely.

9
00:00:19.860 --> 00:00:22.080
The promises would be held forever, they said,

10
00:00:22.080 --> 00:00:23.900
in registers held up and down the country
--

11
00:00:23.900 --> 00:00:26.279
and if you paid ITV some money,

12
00:00:26.279 --> 00:00:31.550
your promise would also be permanently inscribed
at a historic site somewhere in the UK.

13
00:00:31.550 --> 00:00:34.190
Historic like the East India Dock basin, here.

14
00:00:34.190 --> 00:00:38.950
A few years later, and there's almost no sign
that this ever happened.

15
00:00:38.950 --> 00:00:39.520
But to tell the truth,

16
00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:43.100
I could have said that in 2002 or 2003.

17
00:00:43.100 --> 00:00:45.980
The public didn't care about the Year of Promise,

18
00:00:45.980 --> 00:00:48.440
and ITV abandoned the whole scheme as soon
as they could.

19
00:00:48.440 --> 00:00:51.200
At least, as soon as they could without losing
face.

20
00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:53.030
The Internet Archive has most of their web
site,

21
00:00:53.030 --> 00:00:56.219
and the National Library of Scotland seems
to have the only available copy

22
00:00:56.219 --> 00:00:59.850
of a CD with all the promises on -- but that's
it.

23
00:00:59.850 --> 00:01:04.819
Some of the benches and monuments that are
inscribed with promises still exist, like this one...

24
00:01:04.819 --> 00:01:09.939
but a lot of them have been destroyed or moved
in renovations or just weathered away over time.

25
00:01:09.939 --> 00:01:13.659
Despite the millions that ITV spent on trying
to leave a mark on history -- their words,

26
00:01:13.659 --> 00:01:14.439
not mine --

27
00:01:14.439 --> 00:01:16.740
the promises have been almost forgotten.

28
00:01:16.740 --> 00:01:19.670
Designing something to last is incredibly
difficult,

29
00:01:19.670 --> 00:01:22.170
even if it's not just a publicity stunt.

30
00:01:22.170 --> 00:01:25.189
But here's the thing: it might not matter.

31
00:01:25.189 --> 00:01:26.849
Research has proved an old urban legend:

32
00:01:26.849 --> 00:01:31.619
that writing down a goal or a promise makes
you significantly more likely to do it.

33
00:01:31.619 --> 00:01:33.130
It helps if you tell someone else,

34
00:01:33.130 --> 00:01:36.579
it helps if you get it engraved on a monument
somewhere.

35
00:01:36.579 --> 00:01:39.679
But just the act of committing to something
in writing,

36
00:01:39.679 --> 00:01:42.029
even if you're the only one to see it,

37
00:01:42.029 --> 00:01:45.270
means that your human desire to stay consistent,

38
00:01:45.270 --> 00:01:48.959
to stay true to what you think your beliefs
are,

39
00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:51.739
makes you more likely to achieve it. Or, at
least,

40
00:01:51.739 --> 00:01:53.520
more likely to say that you've achieved it

41
00:01:53.520 --> 00:01:56.499
when a researcher calls and asks you about
it later.

42
00:01:56.499 --> 00:02:00.669
So I don't know if Kay O'Grady really did
overcome OCD,

43
00:02:00.669 --> 00:02:04.119
or Susan Moussa really did learn first aid.

44
00:02:04.119 --> 00:02:07.590
And perhaps the money that ITV spent on their
ill-fated Year of Promise

45
00:02:07.590 --> 00:02:09.360
could have been better put to other things.

46
00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:14.390
But I'd like to think that all the promises,
all the commitments,

47
00:02:14.390 --> 00:02:16.599
really did do some good in the world.

48
00:02:16.599 --> 00:02:18.379
Even if no-one actually remembers them now.

49
00:02:19.140 --> 00:02:20.940
[Translating these subtitles? Add your name
here!]