History UnintentionalUncannyValley / Advertising

** Speaking of mascots, [=McDonald's=] first version of Ronald [=McDonald=] from 1963 was a clown wearing ketchup colored UncannyValleyMakeup with a drink cup for a nose (which partially covered his eyes), wild hair (probably meant to look like french fries), and a box topped with a drink, burger and fries. The combination him look, at best, like a guy who was just dumpster diving in a [=McDonalds=] dumpster.

** British McDonalds once held [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV6wE6Zrkqw a promotion]] during 2010 for their fried chicken Happy Meal featuring two CG dancers, one with an overly-stretched neck and face with the other being large-eyed.

** Speaking of mascots, [=McDonald's=] first version of Ronald [=McDonald=] from 1963 was a clown wearing UncannyValleyMakeup with a drink cup for a nose, wild hair (probably meant to look like french fries), and a box topped with a drink, burger and fries makes him look, at best, like a guy who was just dumpster diving in a [=McDonalds=] dumpster.

** Speaking of mascots, McDonald's first version of Ronald McDonald from 1963 was a clown wearing UncannyValleyMakeup with a drink cup for a nose, wild hair (probably meant to look like french fries), and a box topped with a drink, burger and fries makes him look, at best, like a guy who was just dumpster diving in a McDonalds dumpster.

* In 2013, the detail of Mr. Clean's character model was [[AnimationBump bumped up]]. While he still retains a celshaded look, the enhanced detail makes him seem more realistic and therefore, more uncanny.
* A run of [[http://news.yahoo.com/obamacare-battle-moves-to-college-campuses-200027191.html ads from "Generation Opportunity"]] [[InvokedTrope deliberately invoke this]], where a "Creepy Uncle Sam" is depicted about to [[AssShove give a proctology exam]] or [[UnfortunateImplications give a gynecological exam]], pleading for young people to "opt out" of health insurance. The ad the group placed on {{Craigslist}} even cites Advertising/TheBurgerKing as direct inspiration for the character.

* In the United Kingdom, Lynx deodorant ran an advertising campaign in which a grinning man made entirely of chocolate [[ITasteDelicious broke off pieces of himself]]. The advert was eventually banned for being too disturbing. [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3qYT60DSKQ See it here]]. They're using the same ad for the American version, called Axe. It's still really creepy.

* A recent run of [[http://news.yahoo.com/obamacare-battle-moves-to-college-campuses-200027191.html ads from "Generation Opportunity"]] [[InvokedTrope deliberately invoke this]], where a "Creepy Uncle Sam" is depicted about to [[AssShove give a proctology exam]] or [[UnfortunateImplications give a gynecological exam]], pleading for young people to "opt out" of health insurance. The ad the group placed on {{Craigslist}} even cites Advertising/TheBurgerKing as direct inspiration for the character.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqpwtKP2XgY This commercial from Sunraysia]] features a baby kangaroo shilling for organic juice. Problem is, the eyes are too big, the voice is misplaced and the graphics look like a rejected Silicon Graphics rendering ([[LampshadedTheObscureReference a.k.a.]] [[SpecialEffectFailure the cg is very off putting)]].

* The recent [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4eM-Y1ZOxE Charlize Theron Dior ad]] features Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe rendered in CGI. While the first two look mostly okay here, Marilyn definitely crosses that line into the Uncanny Valley department. Her expressions and movements just don't really look all that natural.

* Old Navy's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBQ49O-6eF8 Supermodelquins]]. You have the eerie over-perfect look of a mannequin ''and words come out of their mouth but their lips don't move.''

* This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W51wl9Cg7Jc Russian ad for hemorrhoid suppositories]] shows a rather unsettling 3D-animated pregnant mermaid. It is shown on YouTube in 2021, while the animation looks like it was made about 15 years earlier.

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* This [[http://vimeo.com/69868746 Johnny Walker commercial]] brought Bruce Lee back to life. The problem is, sometimes he looks like a video game character, sometimes he looks truly real, and sometimes you can't tell what you're looking at. The worst parts probably are where he's in the shadows, giving him a "lurking and menacing" kind of vibe, and when he ''suddenly jumps at you to tell you that have you potential to be a "game changer"'' at the end.

Return to the main page [[UncannyValley here]].

!!Examples
* A "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FDVHCfKAr8 Virtual Lara Croft]]" video was made to promote ''Tomb Raider III'' at the time of its release. It's just wrong on so many levels. Lara's face is too wide, she gesticulates with her arms in a writhing fashion while saying mundane things, and most oddly her legs are completely glued together and to the floor through the entire 3 minutes. As for the content, she breaks the 4th wall in rather awkward ways, including the infamous "...give the player more...Satisfaction!"

* A Carmax ad intentionally invokes this trope for a point. In it, a man stops (presumably) at a strange gas station when, in a short while, a small group of [[TheFifties 1950s Style]] [[StepfordSmiler Stepford smiling]] gas station attendants start to wash and do the standard old "Full Service" to the car (checking oil, gas, air, etc.). The man becomes visibly unnerved by this and demands they stop but they don't. Now frightened, the man runs out and accidentally bumps into an equally odd milkman, who, while some of his milk bottles (also in fifties style) are smashed to the ground, can only react with "Oh Dear" in an equally Stepford-like fashion. Finally the man runs (possibly into the bowels of Hell by mistake) screaming away from the scene.
** Apparantly the whole point of the commercial was that our modern world is far too cynical for Good ol' fashioned "Full Car Service" and Carmax is here to ease us back into this (presumably by not hiring robots or Demons in Human form to work their Customer Service hotline).

* In December 2010, Andrex toilet tissue in the UK, well known for its long-running campaign with [[PreciousPuppies real life labrador pups]], launched [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brZ88Byh544 an advertisement]] replacing real dogs with [[ConspicuousCG CGI-rendered dog characters]] [[AnthropomorphicShift behaving like humans]].

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHmQN0ECU5Y These]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2jWx1khCX8 three]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_VjL5Y67nc ads]] from Directv. The CGI puppets are supposed to look like they're using UsefulNotes/Supermarionation. To put it simply, they...don't. A better analogy would be that the puppets look as if they're using human skin as a covering. Even worse is the ad where the wife [[FetishRetardant starts strip dancing in front of the husband.]]

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHmQN0ECU5Y These]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2jWx1khCX8 three]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_VjL5Y67nc ads]] from Directv. The CGI puppets are supposed to look like they're using [[{{Supermarionation}} supermarionation]]. To put it simply, they...don't. A better analogy would be that the puppets look as if they're using human skin as a covering. Even worse is the ad where the wife [[FetishRetardant starts strip dancing in front of the husband.]]

* An ad for Inventhelp features an actor that appears to be CG on close inspection.l

* [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u5BOVWVafb0 The Ticket Oak]] ads for Stubhub.com. That thing was pretty creepy back when all its puppetry worked, but those giant green derp eyes it has now make it worse

* Commercials for ringtones in Italy feature CGI-created {{Funny Animal}}s doing [[Music/AlvinAndTheChipmunks Chipmunk-style]] [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong covers]] of pop-song [[FadSuper that are popular when the ads air.]] Funny animals look fine. When it comes to humans, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRyh9lAo3a0 however...]]

* A "Virtual Lara Croft" video was made to promote ''Tomb Raider III'' at the time of its release. It's just wrong on so many levels. Lara's face is too wide, she gesticulates with her arms in a writhing fashion while saying mundane things, and most oddly her legs are completely glued together and to the floor through the entire 3 minutes. As for the content, she breaks the 4th wall in rather awkward ways, including the infamous "...give the player more...Satisfaction!"
** Another virtual Lara video was made to promote ''VideoGame/TombRaiderTheAngelOfDarkness''. It suffers from similar problems as the [=TR3=] one, with Lara looking a little different than her in-game model (in this case, too thin), awkward 4th-wall breaking moments, and stiff animation. She even gets a SlasherSmile at one point.