History ParanoiaFuel / Advertising

* This trope is part of the reason why UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn succeeded in Japan. Because God help you if you do not have the console, a judoka named Advertising/SegataSanshiro will come and beat the ever loving crap out of you. It doesn't matter if your 'crime' is having another console, or playing non-video games like baseball, or even doing some entertainment that is not a game, quote the tagline, ''"You must play Sega Saturn/Sega Saturn, Shiro!!"''
* Speaking of Sega, there's the ''Advertising/ItsThinking'' campaign for the [[UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast Dreamcast]]. The idea of game characters hanging out in your console takes out some of the creepiness, but then there's the fact there's a ''giant brain connected to wires'' in the centre of the console. Not to mention the fact that the slogan implies that the console is ''alive''. Hope you don't drop something heavy on your Dreamcast and accidentally kill it and/or endanger the characters living inside.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhbpBMzjE1A commercial]] for the UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy had the system sprouting spindly legs, growing 10 feet tall, and stalking the obviously frightened kid through a post-apocalyptic world while the announcer states how, despite having its own brain, voice, and legs, it needs "your eyes." It ends with the kid being cornered, wrapped up in the controller cord, and yanked from his hiding spot to be forced to stick his head into the device and play it. Hideously creepy, especially when you consider one of the major downsides to the system was eye strain, headaches, and neck pains.

* Not an ad so much as a logo, but Sherwin Williams Paints seems rather sinister. A globe coated with blood-red paint and bearing the words "COVER THE EARTH" can't possibly stand for a company without some sinister hidden agenda. It can't be a good sign.

* There was a Pepsi commercial back in the early 90s where a boy was on the beach sucking Pepsi out of a glass bottle through a straw. As he sucks to get the last little drops from the bottle, he somehow gets sucked into the bottle, and we see him squashed up while his sister yells [[OhNoNotAgain "MOM, he did it again!"]] Who would have thought straws could be so dangerous?

* Invoked UpToEleven in recent [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4mCY8Nr0s ads]] for a shingles vaccine. It's ALREADY INSIDE YOU!!!

* Not an ad so much as a logo, but Sherman Williams Paints seems rather sinister. A globe coated with blood-red paint and bearing the words "COVER THE EARTH" can't possibly stand for a company without some sinister hidden agenda. It can't be a good sign.

** Or it'll [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcZ37PWQ8Q0 force cats to speed up their evolution...]]

* Advertising/TheBurgerKing ads. A man walks through a dark and abandoned parking lot (Or possibly a subway. Haven't seen it in a while) when up pops a man dressed in kings robes and a plastic mask. Sound harmless enough? You've clearly never seen the mask this guy is wearing. He then offers the man food, bringing up uncomfortable "Sweets from a stranger" connotations. And he's unerringly silent the whole time.

* Possibly, the "Advertising/GotMilk" ad that featured ProductPlacement for ''VideoGame/SuperMario64''. Remember, kids: If video game characters want to, they'll come out of the game through your TV and raid your fridge! (So don't fall asleep while playing ''Franchise/SilentHill'' or some other horror game... pleasant dreams otherwise!)

* The NACAID grim reaper ads from 1987 were enough to make people link homosexuals to Death ever since, despite there being the message that aids does not affect just homosexuals.

* The commercials for the UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy had the system sprouting spindly legs, growing 10 feet tall, and stalking the obviously frightened kid through a post-apocalyptic world while the announcer states how, despite having its own brain, voice, and legs, it needs "your eyes." It ends with the kid being cornered, wrapped up in the controller cord, and yanked from his hiding spot to be forced to stick his head into the device and play it. Hideously creepy, especially when you consider one of the major downsides to the system was eye strain, headaches, and neck pains.
** You mean like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhbpBMzjE1A this]]?
*** ...yeah.

* The commercials for the Virtual Boy had the system sprouting spindly legs, growing 10 feet tall, and stalking the obviously frightened kid through a post-apocalyptic world while the announcer states how, despite having its own brain, voice, and legs, it needs "your eyes." It ends with the kid being cornered, wrapped up in the controller cord, and yanked from his hiding spot to be forced to stick his head into the device and play it. Hideously creepy, especially when you consider one of the major downsides to the system was eye strain, headaches, and neck pains.

* A super bowl commercial for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m71m-LBqFQ Hulu]] outright tells you that Hollywood actors are in fact aliens using TV to turn our brains into mush so they can be eaten. More in the same series have since been aired.

* The Burger King ads. A man walks through a dark and abandoned parking lot (Or possibly a subway. Haven't seen it in a while) when up pops a man dressed in kings robes and a plastic mask. Sound harmless enough? You've clearly never seen the mask this guy is wearing. He then offers the man food, bringing up uncomfortable "Sweets from a stranger" connotations. And he's unerringly silent the whole time.

* The Geico commercials with the money with eyes even has the "Somebody's Watching Me" song in the background.

* Possibly, the "got milk?" ad that featured ProductPlacement for Super Mario 64. Remember, kids: If video game characters want to, they'll come out of the game through your TV and raid your fridge!! (So don't fall asleep while playing ''Franchise/SilentHill'' or some other horror game... pleasant dreams otherwise!! 0_0)

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6iHCFiSqIw This series of ads for Panda Cheese]] will make you paranoid that a vindictive panda will show up out of nowhere and ruin your life should you ever refuse to eat his cheese. The tagline? "Never say no to Panda."