TSA and Iconic Representation

While in the security line in an airport this past weekend, I noticed a new video about restricted items on flights and procedures for packing liquids. The TSA chose to use iconic representation to illustrate many of the rules. The video can be found playing on this page of their website: http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/index.shtm. According to Universal Principals of Design, icons reduce performance load, conserve display and control area, and make signs and controls more understandable across cultures:

Here is a screen shot from the video:

Here we see Symbolic icons used. The icons represent a category of objects that are banned. However, it's not completely clear what all of these icons symbolize. Fortunately, the video enlarges them and adds some text to clarify the categories. Here, it clarifies that the top middle icon, which symbolizes flammable or explosive materials:

Here are some other screen shots from the video:

Liquids Procedure

Approved Laptop Bags

The icons follow best practices by being labeled (most of them at least) and sharing a common visual style and color. UPD also talks about how pictures are remembered better than words, which the video clearly helps accomplish.

Here is another TSA video from their YouTube channel for international travelers that uses iconic representation to communicate different concepts of traveling to and from the US: http://www.youtube.com/user/TSAHQpublicaffairs#p/a/f/0/vRGUaSKtEg8. However, many of the concepts are only made clear by the voice narrating them in English. If I'm coming from a foreign country, I might not understand the narrator...TSA fail.