History Main / TalkingPest

See also: MeetTheMeat. PeeveGoblins may sometimes play a similar role in advertising as well.

-->'''A cockroach''', Raid insecticide ads.

''[[OhCrap RAAAIIIIID!!]]'' *boom*

* Advertisements for the Polish sweet yogurt Danio feature a creature named "Little Hunger" - an ugly, squat yellow humanoid who shows up and sneers menacingly at people, only to disappear away when they help themselves to a little Danio.

** ''TV Funhouse'' parodied this with an ad for "Attack" insecticide, taking the aforementioned FridgeLogic to its horrible conclusion: The roaches have a whole humanesque society, loving family relationships, even religion, and yet you're encouraged to inflict horrible, uncaring death upon them.

* The InteractiveComic ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'' has Dr. Phage, a giant talking virus with a huge ego and an obsession with tacky bow ties.

* The title characters from ''Karius og Baktus'', a Norwegian children's book from '49, who live the easy life in the mouth of a boy who never brushes his teeth. It's widely used to teach children about the importance of brushing their teeth. Depending on the adaptation and the age of the audience, it can ScareEmStraight.

** In Latin America, Danone used the same character for [[=DanUp=]] and (after Danone forged an alliance with the Argentine dairy company La Serenísima) Yogurísimo Energía Total under the names "Lochudo" and "Pachorra", respectively.

* Louie the Fly in ads for Mortein, an Australian brand of insecticide. Louie was so popular that he even had his own newspaper comic strip for a while.

The logic behind it is to convince viewers that the various insects and maladies out there are making them miserable not as a by-product of them doing what they naturally do, but rather because they just ''[[{{Troll}} love]]'' to piss people off. See, it brings them joy to munch on your wall studs and give you athlete's foot, so you have buy the advertised product and give 'em their due punishment![[labelnote:*]]As opposed to just efficiently getting rid of them, we mean; no one's defending termites or athlete's foot here[[/labelnote]] Of course, this can result in FridgeLogic when you realize that showing the graphic death of an insect is more disturbing when the insect is anthropomorphized so much that it has apparent human intellect and speaking ability.

* The Domestos toilet cleaner ads feature talking germs that mock the house owner for never getting rid of them, until they realise the house owner is using Domestos.
* The InteractiveWebcomic ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'' has Dr. Phage, a giant talking virus with a huge ego and an obsession with tacky bow ties.
* Advertisements for the Polish sweet yoghurt Danio feature a creature named "Little Hunger" - an ugly, squat yellow humanoid who shows up and sneers menacingly at people, only to disappear away when they help themselves to a little Danio.

See also: MeetTheMeat.

The logic behind it is to convince viewers that the various insects and maladies out there are making them miserable not as a by-product of them doing what they naturally do, but rather because they just ''love'' to piss people off. See, it brings them joy to munch on your wall studs and give you athlete's foot, so you have buy the advertised product and give 'em their due punishment![[labelnote:*]]As opposed to just efficiently getting rid of them, we mean; no one's defending termites or athlete's foot here[[/labelnote]] Of course, this can result in FridgeLogic when you realize that showing the graphic death of an insect is more disturbing when the insect is anthropomorphized so much that it has apparent human intellect and speaking ability.

* The Domestos toilet cleaner ads feature talking germs that mock the house owner for never getting rid of them, until the realise the house owner is using Domestos.

* Recent Nicorette ads feature a green CG imp that represents the Nicorette user's nicotine addiction.

* Used to perfection in recent Orkin Pest Control ads, where the insects are man-sized, realistic-looking, and given the creepiest voices imaginable. In fact, it's probably [[NightmareFuel too effective]].
** "Say, is that real oak?"

The advertisement features a representative of the creature or item the product is supposed to wipe out. The Talking Pest will start by bragging about how well things are going for it. Then the product is used. Sometimes the pest is evicted, and bitterly complains as it is leaving. Sometimes it is killed, and viewers get to hear its last scream. Sometimes the TalkingPest is cute. On occasion, it is the basis of merchandising.

The advertisement features a representative of the creature or item the product is supposed to wipe out. The TalkingPest will start by bragging about how well things are going for it. Then the product is used. Sometimes the pest is evicted, and bitterly complains as it is leaving. Sometimes it is killed, and viewers get to hear its last scream. Sometimes the TalkingPest is cute. On occasion, it is the basis of merchandising.

* Louie the Fly in ads for Mortein, an Australian brand of insecticide.

* The InteractiveWebcomic ''AwfulHospital'' has Dr. Phage, a giant talking virus with a huge ego and an obsession with tacky bow ties.

* The Domestos toilet cleaner ads feature talking germs that mock the house owner for never getting rid of them, until the realise the house owner is using Domestos

The logic behind it is to convince viewers that the various insects and maladies out there are making them miserable not as a by-product of them doing what they naturally do, but rather because they just ''love'' to piss people off. See, it brings them joy to munch on your wall studs and give you athlete's foot, so you have buy the advertised product and give 'em their due punishment![[hottip:*:As opposed to just efficiently getting rid of them, we mean; no one's defending termites or athlete's foot here]] Of course, this can result in FridgeLogic when you realize that showing the graphic death of an insect is more disturbing when the insect is anthropomorphized so much that it has apparent human intellect and speaking ability.

* The title characters from ''Karius og Baktus'', a norwegian children's book from '49, who live the easy life in the mouth of a boy who never brushes his teeth. It's widely used to teach children about the importance of brushing their teeth. Depending on the adaptation and the age of the audience, it can ScareEmStraight.

The advertisement features a representative of the creature or item the product is supposed to wipe out. The TalkingPest will start by bragging about how well things are going for it. Then the product is used. Sometimes the pest is evicted, and bitterly complains as it is leaving. Sometimes it is killed, and viewers get to hear its last scream. Sometimes the TalkingPest is cute. On occasion, it is the basis of merchandising.

Can result in FridgeLogic when you realize that showing the graphic death of an insect is more disturbing when the insect is anthropomorphized so much that it has apparent human intellect and speaking ability.

The advertisement features a representative of the creature or item the product is supposed to wipe out. The Talking Pest will start by bragging about how well things are going for it. Then the product is used. Sometimes the pest is evicted, and bitterly complains as it is leaving. Sometimes it is killed, and viewers get to hear its last scream.
Sometimes the Talking Pest is cute. On occasion, it is the basis of merchandising.

Can result in ''FridgeLogic'' when you realize that showing the graphic death of an insect is more disturbing when the insect is anthropomorphized so much that it has apparent human intellect and speaking ability.

Examples:
* Insects in ads for Raid insecticide. Raid has been doing this for decades.
** ''TV Funhouse'' parodied this with an ad for "Attack" insecticide, taking the aforementioned FridgeLogic to its horrible conclusion: The roaches have a whole humanesque society, loving family relationships, even religion, and yet you're encouraged to inflict horrible, uncaring death upon them.

* Used to perfection in recent Orkin Pest Control ads, where the insects are man-sized, realistic-looking, and given the creepiest voices imaginable. In fact, it's probably [[NightmareFuel too effective]].
**"Say, is that real oak?"

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