| 1 | [[ScareEmStraight Click here to return to the main page.]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ---- |
| 4 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 5 | [[folder:International]] |
| 6 | * Without a doubt, this is one of the most favored tactics of PETA (and other animal rights groups to a degree), who resorts to using graphic images of animals being killed, accusing young children's mothers of killing animals, and repeating harsh (and debatable) warnings that eating meat will cause all manner of health problems in order to frighten the naive and squeamish. The veracity of their claims is often doubtful, as many of the videos and pictures they show portray uncommon and/or outdated practices [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzTzAPYn2AA (many people involved in animal agriculture are quite shocked at the inaccuracy and exaggeration in the materials)]], and many of their [[FalselyAdvertisedAccuracy "scientific" claims]] (such as the claim that [[ArtisticLicenseBiology humans are "natural herbivores"]]) are based on outdated or discredited research. Some ads showed ''[[NotSafeForWork naked humans]]'' being subject to the "torture" animals are put through, most likely counting on FanDisservice to carry the message. |
| 7 | * The same for animal adoption houses and charities that help gravely ill, maimed, and/or abused animals. Most of the time, the ads just show the faces of the dogs or cats looking at the camera with sad eyes to tug at your heartstrings. The more aggressive forms of these ads will show animals in their actual abused state (bruising, starvation, etc.) and one ad even showed someone about to beat a seal to death with a wooden plank with the ad freeze framing right before the moment of impact. Animal cruelty is horrible, but people who can't afford to donate to charity usually hate being guilt tripped by the aggressive ads and choose to ignore them. |
| 8 | * [=UNICEF=] did a PSA [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa8MjjMajEA that showed the Smurfs]] [[SugarApocalypse getting carpet bombed]]. |
| 9 | ** Some of their collabs with animation companies/creators also count: [[Creator/CookieJarEntertainment Cinar]] had a girl and her dog land on a mine as they're jumping around the hills, Matinee Entertainment had babies fall on a soon-to-be carpet bombed city, Fred Wolf had a child who witnessed a murder by firearm dream that his robot kills his toys the same way, Creator/AFilm had a man kidnapping a child for trafficking purposes, Creator/{{RAI}} had a sad boy making soccer balls… |
| 10 | * The Save the Children Fund's [[https://youtu.be/RBQ-IoHfimQ "Most Shocking Second of the Day"]] and a [[https://youtu.be/nKDgFCojiT8 sequel]] criticizing the Western viewers' inability to emphasize with people caught in wars, refugee crises, and other conflicts unless such a story was told about [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome a young white British girl]]. The videos compose of a second of her life each passing day, starting out as mundane and ordinary until things get increasingly politically intense, such as her family getting told to go die, the news headlines becoming more desperate, being forced to evacuate from their home, getting caught in shootouts, getting separated or killed, both videos beginning and ending with the girl celebrating her birthday. Both videos end with her too depressed from all her hardship to make a birthday wish, because she has nothing to hope for. |
| 11 | [[/folder]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | [[folder:Britain]] |
| 14 | British Public Information Films (UK name for PSA), shown before most cinema screenings and about every hour or two on television (most advert breaks/junctions on the overnight hours are comprised of [=PIF=]s), are particularly infamous for their graphic details, high body counts, and general shock value. Their peak, both in cultural impact and creepiness, was between 1973 and 1997, a period that could be resumed as 20-minute Hammer Horror-style stories with accidents replacing the monsters and often involving children or women, often broadcast in the afternoon on BBC-2. While beginning in the late 1990s, these kinds of adverts began to diversify tactics (and that the Central Office of Information was closed in 2011), the most noted modern [=PIFs=] are still of the NightmareFuel kind (which are often done in two versions — a "cleaner" one for family movies and daytime TV, and a "gory" one for mature films and post-watershed TV). |
| 15 | ---- |
| 16 | * Behold, the early 1970s "[[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1964to1979/filmpage_lonely.htm Lonely Waters]]" short about the dangers of swimming in the wrong place, memorably narrated by Creator/DonaldPleasence as the evil water god. |
| 17 | * The UK government doesn't like benefit cheats. The UK government doesn't like people who dodge their TV license payment. The UK government doesn't like people who don't pay their car tax. Their solution is to broadcast dark/grey shaded adverts with monotone voice overs that wouldn't be out of place in a horror film: "[[ParanoiaFuel We know where you live. We can check your post. Our computers can find you anywhere.]]" If anyone else sent a tape like this, it would be called "[[StalkerWithoutACrush stalking]]." Instead, it's perfectly reasonable to commission a series of adverts that solemnly inform you that if you claim benefits while employed, you will be hounded by [[Series/CaptainScarletAndTheMysterons Mysterons]] before there's [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin an ominous knocking at your door]]… |
| 18 | ** Hilariously undermined by the "lost databases" fiasco. An agency which puts million-person databases on unencrypted, take-home laptops and can't even manage to keep them in the right country isn't likely to run the [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} omniscient killing (or shake-downing) machine]] the adverts suggest. |
| 19 | *** Because they need proof, which often requires the necessary surveillance. |
| 20 | * The UK [=PIFs=] about making sure you have a working smoke alarm have become more and more grim; years ago, the reminder to regularly check the batteries was a benign "thumbs up on a Monday!" Today, the ads are set in a dismal waiting room to the afterlife with a sadistic administrator barking at people why they're dead, with the punchline of a child telling their parent [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmVU0mm9fwI "you forgot to check the battery, Mummy."]] This same tagline was used in a disturbing poster — it's scrawled in soot on a charred wall, in a child's handwriting. |
| 21 | ** A 90s-era fire alarm advert featuring a couple weeping and constantly rewinding a video of a child opening a present, followed by the voiceover 'Check your smoke alarm.' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XtmMoK2fkQ Here it is.]] |
| 22 | *** [[FridgeHorror They're going to feel even worse when that constant rewinding destroys the tape.]] |
| 23 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd7uhtcLBOo This infamous Fire Kills advert.]] There are people who still can't get the sounds of the old woman screaming for help out of their head years later. Also, the third part saying to keep your exits clear, with a shot of a man struggling to get past a bicycle in his hallway, is ''terrifying'' if you live in a house which has a thin narrow hallway leading to the door. Apparently, this ad was so scary that it got banned from television. |
| 24 | *** Hong Kong regularly runs fire safety campaigns ''worse'' than this, showing people trapped in high-rise apartment buildings that they can't escape from. The campaigns have become less severe over the years, but up until the early to mid-2000s, it was common to switch on and see scenes of [[OhCrap panicking]] people trapped in basements or barricaded into hallways because of items stored there. |
| 25 | ** An ad was showing a bedroom with a couple sleeping in it, wonderful CG making it seem underwater. A calm voice says "Dying of smoke inhalation is just like drowning…" — and the CG disappears, making the bedroom almost invisible due to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Kh3Ag4j1Ng black smoke]]. |
| 26 | ** There was a campaign shot in grim black and white, with a soundtrack of creepy choral music. All the while we see memorials for the dead (such as a funeral wreath, the order of service booklet for a funeral, and a memorial plaque on a gate) with excuses that people make for not having working smoke alarms: "I didn't know where to buy one," "I didn't get around to it," etc. Finally, we see a gravestone with the dates of death of a married couple ("My husband should have fitted the smoke alarm," "My landlord should have fitted the smoke alarm") and their baby, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBdbi99C0uI&feature=related who was three months old.]] |
| 27 | ** The music that is used in this ad is in fact 'Down to the river to pray'. |
| 28 | * A carbon monoxide advert shows a young woman coming home, turning on the gas heater, and getting ready for bed. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR9QJo7BcYg Cut to the next morning, showing her pale corpse lying in bed…]] This was a deliberate scare campaign created after several cases of carbon monoxide-related deaths of university students in rented accommodation. |
| 29 | * In the mid-2000s, there was a pretty graphic Fire Kills PIF about chip pan safety with a woman's voice over explaining what you should and shouldn't do if your chip pan catches fire. The ad ends with a shock tactic as the woman is shown at the end revealing what happened to her because she didn't follow the instructions and how it could easily happen to the audience. You can watch it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdmFb3lC5yk here,]] but be prepared to kiss your sleep goodbye. |
| 30 | * Shelter, a UK-based charity campaigning for better housing, has put out some pretty scary advertising. One ad documented the case of a young mother and her baby killed in a fire because the house wasn't up to safety standards; another showed a family squeezed into a tiny room in "bed and breakfast" accommodation (cheap hostel rooms offered to the homeless), the parents' tempers slowly fraying until one of them is about to hit their child. They also ran a poster campaign with the caption "Like many children, Mary's growing up with furry pets" under a picture of rats crawling over a screaming baby in her crib. |
| 31 | * Ricky Gervais chastised an anti-gambling PIF for "encouraging gambling!" before adding "I like those odds, but still..." |
| 32 | * The UK government's ''Think!'' road safety campaigns: |
| 33 | ** This advert showed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipnJbSnmc24 a very realistic-looking slow motion collision with a child.]] |
| 34 | ** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsp-nrf_8KQ "Richard didn't want to die" ad]] that shows — in quite gory detail — a man having to brake suddenly for some reason. His organs get flung against his ribs, the ribs snap and dig into his lungs. On a twenty-foot-high screen. |
| 35 | ** [[https://www.hatads.org.uk/catalogue/record/ce936013-519b-47bb-ac75-0fc412001f72 There was an award-winning radio advert]] about why children should always wear seatbelts when traveling in a car. In the style of "Watch with Mother," with nursery rhyme music playing, an inappropriately cheerful woman talks about little AliceAndBob who loved the story of Peter Pan and wanted to be like him. They got their wish when the car crashed on their way to school. Just like Peter Pan, Bob flew (through the windscreen) and Alice "never grew up" — because she died. “What a mess”, indeed. |
| 36 | ** This ad aired alongside another one aimed at teenagers, with a doctor describing ([[DissonantSerenity in far too upbeat a tone]]) the reconstructive surgery you'll need if you crash face-first through the windscreen during a road accident. |
| 37 | ** An anti-speeding "online simulator" radio advert went along these lines: |
| 38 | --> Sound of tires squealing, a crash, then silence. |
| 39 | --> [[CreepyChild Young child]]: "Hit me at 40mph, and there's an 80% chance I'll die. Hit me at 30mph, and there's a 80% chance I'll live." |
| 40 | --> Sound of tires squealing, a crash, silence… then a child begins to cry loudly. |
| 41 | ** There was also a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeUX6LABCEA version made for TV]] featuring a little girl lying underneath a tree trunk, presumably after getting hit by a speeding car. As she repeats the above lines, she comes back to life, with her bones snapping back in place with a [[SickeningCrunch sickening crunch,]] accompanied by creepy music. She then gets dragged back by an invisible force to the middle of the road, where she wakes up and gasps. |
| 42 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjJCdBohRPk This 1998 PIF for seatbelts]]: |
| 43 | --> Voice-over: "Like most victims, Julie knew her killer…"\ |
| 44 | This was [[http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/rear-seat-belts-julie-1970 restricted to viewers aged 15 and over]] when shown in British cinemas. |
| 45 | ** An advert against drunk driving followed a man's daily life, [[BeAllMySinsRemembered who saw the mangled body of a child he had hit in the past everywhere he looked]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7fhzDUOsxI Yes, it is that horrifying.]] |
| 46 | ** The advert that zoomed in on the face of a young woman (played by a young Denise Van Outen) in a neck brace, who had been run over by an intoxicated driver, while paramedics attempted to revive her, was considered to be too graphic to be shown before the watershed. |
| 47 | ** More gems: An advert showed the ''actual funeral'' of a child that was run over, another had a man trying to apologise to a girl he hit, '''when she was already dead and being revived to no avail''' (a predecessor to the Van Outen PIF), and '''''an actual young man on life support that was paralysed after an accident'''''. |
| 48 | * Northern Ireland's unsafe driving [=PSAs=] are ''grim'', 1970s PIF grim. These don't use any fancy tricks or catchy tunes, preferring the heartbroken [[TalkingHeads talking-head]] testimonials of a bereaved mother and father (who break down on screen) or ''the translated moans of a paraplegic''. It'd be funny if it wasn't so traumatic. |
| 49 | * There are at least three anti-smoking [=PIFs=] where Superman finishes out by coldly saying, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDRMeeuP3F0 I never]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5N0aG_EFOM say Yes to]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBJkA3w_LVQ a cigarette.]]" |
| 50 | * In the UK, there was an advertisement warning people against using unbooked cabs used by rapists and kidnappers. The posters are images of a lady crying and pressed up against the window of a cab, locked in. The text accompanying it says "Please, no. Stop, please. Stop. Please stop taking unbooked minicabs." There is a video version of this as well, with a shaky videocamera image of the inside of a dark taxi and [[RapeAsDrama you can hear a woman crying.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xe7M8aKLRU The same text appears on screen.]] |
| 51 | * Keira Knightley appeared in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctoZbeD-GlY this PSA]] for UK Domestic Violence charity Women's Aid. It was only shown in cinemas, because it was considered too upsetting for TV. |
| 52 | * Like the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, the UK has produced a notable amount of disturbing anti-smoking ads and campaigns. |
| 53 | ** One campaign from the NHS featured a smoker being dragged away with a fish-hook through his cheek. This appeared on [[https://persuasion-and-influence.blogspot.com/2013/02/nhs-hooked-anti-smoking-campaign.html posters]]♢ and on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzNM7BAl7kc TV.]] |
| 54 | ** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evIrwW6cLCg Natural Born Smoker,]]'' a notorious PIF was shown in British cinemas during the 80s; if you watch this late at night, you'll be sure to kiss your sleep goodbye. Did we mention that this has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOXpBwjlEVs sequel?]] |
| 55 | ** When public health warnings became mandatory on cigarette advertising in Britain, the requirement was that any print advertising must have a prominently displayed health warning on the page. But the legal requirement did not specify what the exact warning, from a list of approved wordings, should be on each advert: the advertising agencies had freedom to select, so long as a warning was there. This freedom was used creatively. Thus, adverts in "men's interest" magazines might carry the health warning "Smoking can damage your unborn child/ Smoking can make it harder for you to get pregnant". While womens' interest mags might carry the anti-smoking message "Smoking cigarettes can seriously reduce your sperm count". |
| 56 | [[/folder]] |
| 57 | |
| 58 | [[folder:North America]] |
| 59 | * "Mr. Yuk," a grimacing green face intended to warn kids of poisonous materials, is notoriously creepy. While he was intended to be a little scary, his creators certainly did not intend for him to cause the mass nightmares and burning horror that Mr. Yuk did. Steel yourself for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLsONa3gKIQ short]], or sing along to the full song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqHxKVUG8cU&feature=related here]]. |
| 60 | ** It also establishes that ''even in your own home'', [[ParanoiaFuel you're not safe]]. |
| 61 | ** And the song is also creepy, particularly the [[EvilLaugh evil laughing]] and "sick, sick, sick" parts. |
| 62 | ** There's NightmareRetardant, though, if you remember one thing: [[spoiler:[[Film/LittleShopOfHorrors I'M A MEAN GREEN MOTHERFUCKER FROM OUTER SPACE!]]]] Also, why is Mr. Yuk “mean” if he’s there to protect you? |
| 63 | ** Fun Fact: Mr. Yuk was created because a professor of pediatrics thought it would be best to create [[{{Irony}} a softer alternative to the traditional skull and crossbones]]. |
| 64 | * Another classic from the bad old days: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijbovskICjk Boys Beware]]''. The short swaps the word ''child molester'' with ''homosexual'', and is JustForFun/{{egregious}} enough in its mischaracterization even of ''that'' to make Pat Robertson wince. Contains lines like, "What Jimmy didn't know was that Ralph was sick. A sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious; '''a sickness of the mind'''. You see, Ralph was a homosexual, a person who ''demands'' an intimate relationship with members of their own sex." Make a "scared straight" joke at your own risk! |
| 65 | ** Entertainingly, the film bends over backwards to {{demoniz|ation}}e gays, but gives unqualified approval of hitchhiking. |
| 66 | ** There's also the female version called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6LMlHiBzj4 Girls Beware]]. It teaches ladies [[TheUnFairSex to not talk to any man]], [[AllMenArePerverts because all he wants to do is rape them]]. |
| 67 | * While not uncommon in other countries, [[ScareCampaign Scare Campaigns]] are particularly common in the U.S. — and several studies suggest that they are one of the most effective types of political campaign. |
| 68 | ** Interestingly, studies done in 2008 found that their efficiency had decreased greatly in efficiency since a similar study in 2004. Similarly, in 2004, British progressives were given the voter rolls in various swing-state counties that narrowly went Bush in 2000, and encouraged to write letters to residents explaining why they should vote for John Kerry instead. Bush handily won all of them. |
| 69 | * The "Click It Or Ticket" seatbelt ads often lurch into either self-parody and/or incitement to rebellion; as inane as the ''national'' slogan is, the ''local'' cops should definitely not be allowed to star in their own [=PSAs=]. |
| 70 | ** Many of the [=PSAs=] depict an officer pulling a person over and giving them a ticket for seat belt violations. This is inaccurate in many states where seat belt violations are only secondary offenses, meaning that you have to be pulled over for something else before you can be cited for a seat belt violation. |
| 71 | * [[http://www.parentdish.com/2009/08/25/will-bloody-texting-psa-get-the-message-to-teens/ This PSA]] about texting while driving was actually so over the top that officials decided not to show it. Ironically, unlike in many [=PSAs=] cited here, the events are not all that implausible. It was actually a full-length film that they made to show around school, which showed that if you cause an accident: people will spray paint rude words onto your house, your family won't be able to have a social life… Not to mention that not only were the girls texting, they were also drinking alcohol (not much, though). |
| 72 | ** The Australian island of Tasmania were going to air an ad very similar to this; in fact, The Examiner placed this very ad up for people to review, in a bid to slow the record road toll. Then there was a horror day on the roads with about five crashes and eleven fatalities, [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents and the idea was pulled]]. |
| 73 | * American ads promoting cautious driving have been appearing on buses and the sidewalk where drivers can see, featuring things like a purse having fallen out of the bloodstreaked hand of a woman, with the tagline, "She looked both ways. The driver didn't." |
| 74 | * A lighthearted example of this was "Vince and Larry, the Crash Test Dummies", two morons who appeared in a 1980's safety campaign for the U.S. Department of Transportation in order to promote seat belt safety. The general message was, these dimwits are showing you what ''not'' to do, and the only reason they survive is because crashing is what dummies do. [[TagLine "You Could Learn A Lot From A Dummy"]]? ''Definitely''. |
| 75 | * For over twenty years now, South Carolina has been promoting driver's safety with a series of [=PSAs=] called "Highways or Dieways: The Choice Is Yours." They're all filmed in intentionally grainy, jerky, cheap-documentary style, showing how in just sixty seconds of bad driving your life can change forever, and again in the sixty minutes after that. One of the most effective subset features parents grieving over their dead children in the back of an ambulance. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qEZqbNTNB4 Here's a pretty typical example]]. |
| 76 | * One anti-reckless driving ad shown in Ontario in the early 90s showed a family who'd been in a car accident being handled in the emergency room. The mother dies, and the commercial ends with a cut to black followed by the sound of a tween daughter shrieking, "I want mommy!" |
| 77 | ** Another ad from the same series had a husband who was paralyzed or in a coma following a car accident in a hospital room. His wife is telling him platitudes like "everyone in the other car was OK" while his daughter screams, "[[BrutalHonesty Their little girl's dead!]] [[ThisIsUnforgivable I hate you!]]" Small girls screaming horrible things was the theme of the series. |
| 78 | * Older Quebec road security ads have a tendency towards this… Speeding [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgljmCVvUvs (1)]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MgO0bw1Ykc (2)]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_C897kj9F0 DUI]], or just… [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrSLW8Pi5Po bad driving is bad!]] |
| 79 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKFlHt2lzA4 Older?]] They never stopped. |
| 80 | * American anti-smoking campaigns have two different flavors: One that tells people they won't get as many dates if they smoke in their profile pics on dating sites, and another where former smokers talk in great detail about how their habit ruined their bodies through cancer. Guess which one airs more often. In fact, many anti-drug or anti-smoking ads love to show some pretty graphic images of what will happen to your body, inside and out, if you do drugs or smoke. Bonus points for using the guilt trip by showing the consequences of doing either if you are a ''pregnant mother'' and show what will happen to the baby after it is born. May also show the negative effects of smoking being passed down to children in the house during the ad. We're only listing a few since if we listed every example of this trope being used in an anti-smoking ad, we'd be here all day. |
| 81 | ** A batch of anti-smoking [=PSA=]s showed what long-time smokers have to live with everyday, such as one where a man is constantly gasping for breath, and a woman is lying in bed, having had a stroke, and now being unable to take care of herself. Perhaps the most disturbing, however, is showing a picture of a woman, then showing the woman now, getting ready for the day, first by putting on her wig, then putting a plastic plug in the hole in her neck, then putting a wrap around this, all while she says what she's doing in a very cracked, barely understandable voice. |
| 82 | * A string of anti-obesity campaigns in New York City, trying to convince people to cut back on sugar-based drinks (soda, sweetened iced tea, etc). At first, the advertisements were quite lighthearted, showing a group of young people eating a ton of sugar packets and the narrator noting that one wouldn't eat this much sugar in a single day. Then, the ads became more aggressive like the aforementioned anti-smoking ads by showing morbidly obese people being confined to a motorized scooter, suffering a heart attack in the hospital, and a person with diabetes whose feet have turned black and had to be amputated. The campaign was proposed by former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg as part of his crusade to cut the city's obesity rate (he managed to get trans fat banned in most eateries, although he failed in his attempt to ban large-size drinks), which has been continued by his successor Bill De Blasio. This led people to rebel against not only the local campaign, but also the Obama-era attempts to replicate the crusade nationwide, with the most common complaints being that the government, unlike in other countries (primarily Northern Europe), doesn't have the right to determine what people can eat and drink. |
| 83 | * Anti-Cholesterol drug commercials have a pretty long history with this trope. For example, in early-2003, there was a series of commercials that would show otherwise healthy (and downright gorgeous) women suddenly collapsing once their "cholesterol levels" were displayed on screen. |
| 84 | * Those "Above the Influence" ads are usually tame, but remember [[https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/34901/pool/freevibecom the early one]] with the unattended little girl tugging the raft into the swimming pool, and the voiceover saying, "Just tell her parents you weren't watching her because you were getting stoned. [[SarcasmMode They'll understand]]"? That one's arguably even worse than an over-the-top illustration of what drugs will actually ''do'' to you, because the message is more like, "YouBastard, your natural inclination to choose fun over responsibility '''IS GOING TO KILL THIS CHILD.'''" Because obviously if you'll do drugs at all, you'll do them ''anywhere'', including while you're babysitting a four-year-old with access to an open pool. |
| 85 | ** There are similar advertisements in magazines, except a little LighterAndSofter. (Often showing stuff like a kid waiting on the side of the road with the message, "Just tell your parents you didn't pick him up because you were getting stoned. They'll understand.") |
| 86 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVQRmt6Sit8 Another Above the Influence ad]] depicted a girl puking into a toilet, the camera later revealing she threw up some of her most precious memories. Infamously, it was shown during times where most people [[NauseaFuel would probably be eating]]. |
| 87 | ** And even ''[[http://herbaldrink.deviantart.com/art/Old-work-number-two-57842591 Mario]]'' isn't safe from this… of ''course'', the [[MushroomSamba magic mushroom gags]] are ''way'' too easy. |
| 88 | * One of the earliest [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJTC_sX5cxs anti-drug PSA's]] was done by Creator/HannaBarbera, and fits this trope. It involves an unnamed character traveling through a psychedelic landscape of pills and spliffs — and ending up being grabbed by a closet full of zombies who age him 50 years in two seconds while a ScareChord plays. |
| 89 | * [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Curious_Alice_%281971%29.webm This]] [[NightmareFuel absolutely scary]] [[DrugsAreBad anti-Drug PSA]] from 1971, entitled ''[[Literature/AliceInWonderland Curious Alice]]'' (not the only 1970s anti-drug work involving an Alice), that ironically is ''so'' bizarre and creepy that it seems the ''producers'' were on drugs when they made it. ScareEmStraight, indeed. |
| 90 | * An anti-heroin PSA from the same time showed a wind-up toy monkey while a childlike voice said, "They say that people on heroin have a monkey on their back. Isn't that cute?" Then the camera zoomed in on the monkey's face as it cut into a still of a live, screaming monkey. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AegsJYtwccw&feature=player_embedded Here's]] the PSA itself, in all its LastNoteNightmare-based glory. |
| 91 | * Back in the nineties, there was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn9-2Zjn1d8 an anti-drug PSA]] that featured a little girl sitting in her room when it suddenly began to rapidly fill up with water. You got to see her frantically try to open her window before presumably drowning and floating offscreen. It was about the effects of huffing, which has the same effect on the brain as drowning. |
| 92 | ** The end of the PSA adds to the scare factor, as we get to see the little girl's dead corpse float across the screen, [[DiesWideOpen eyes open and all]]. This was so scary that future airings of the PSA completely edit out the ending. |
| 93 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f03WDDwz2bo This classic 80s anti-cocaine commercial.]] [[ThisIsWrongOnSoManyLevels It's just wrong on all levels.]] |
| 94 | * The Montana Advertising/MethProject (look it up on Website/ThatOtherWiki) is, despite its name, a fairly successful, multi-medium anti-meth campaign that works on showing the results, frequently given out by former meth users themselves (at least, on a few of the radio ads). Fairly notable due to being started as a privately funded campaign, although the state has taken over some of the funding duties, and for the fact that it started (as the name suggests) in Montana, but has spread to UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}}, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, Idaho, Illinois, and Wyoming. |
| 95 | * Another PSA about the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxAYHOWxGi8 dangers of meth]], using a catchy upbeat song describing it as something that will fill you with energy, keep your house clean, and keeps you attentive about your personal hygiene. Needless to say, it was pulled off the air shortly afterwards, because it seemed like an advertisement ''for'' Meth. |
| 96 | ** It seems the entirety of that ad was anti-coffee. "Need energy to clean your house? Do meth! Need to wake up in the morning? Do meth! Meth: The better-tasting alternative to coffee." |
| 97 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THT4t6Qu1fU A lesser-known PSA]] in the same series featured a cheery song about heroin, accompanied by visuals of an addict injecting themselves and vomiting into a filthy public toilet. |
| 98 | * There was a PSA that showed this guy calling himself "[[SnakesAreSinister Snake]]" who comes off as just some drug dealer. Throughout the PSA, Snake discusses what drugs do to you and what you'll do to get them, and as he does so, Snake's voice distorts and he turns into a [[ScaledUp snakelike monster]]. At the end, he adds "Hey, do I look like the kind of guy that would do that to you? ''YESSSSSSSS!''" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLqjFnTIYf8 Watch it here]] if you dare. |
| 99 | ** Of course this isn't scary if you're a ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' fan. Or have watched WebVideo/JonTron react to it. |
| 100 | * In the 2010s, there has been a number of [=PSAs=] dealing with school shooters: |
| 101 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8syQeFtBKc A PSA]] called ''Film/{{Evan}}'' seemed to be mostly recycling another motivational video (though this was a much abbreviated version) about a blooming friendship about a boy named Evan writing messages on a desk for the next person to see, until the desk's classroom ended up getting locked up for some amount of time but the boy and the receiver end up meeting in real life during by recognizing each other's handwriting... [[MoodWhiplash until a boy in the background walks in and loads a shotgun, and everyone in the scene runs for their lives.]] Then the PSA goes on to explain that [[FailedASpotCheck you didn't notice that]] [[MeaningfulBackgroundEvent this boy has been exhibiting behavior that made him suspect for a school shooting]] while Evan was busy trying to figure out who his mystery friend was. [[{{Foreshadowing}} You would've been tipped off that this would've had something to do with gun violence]] if you knew that the poster of the video was called 'Sandy Hook Promise'. |
| 102 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ykNZl9mTQ Another Sandy Hook Promise video]] was released in 2019, initially starting as a normal back-to-school commercial where each kid highlights a school supply their parents bought them... which then segues into kids using their stuff to hide and runaway from a school shooter (starting with a kid who puts on his headphones just as everyone else sees a kid pull out a gun...), including a boy running away while the other kids behind him get mowed down, girl wrapping up her bleeding friend's leg with her new socks, a boy smashing a window open with his skateboard to help him and his classmates escape their classroom, kids anxiously waiting at the door with scissors and sharpened pencils, and a girl hiding in the restroom and tearfully texting her mom on her first phone ever that she loves her just as someone ominously steps into the room... The PSA satirizes how school shootings have been normalized by American media, including the sales of bulletproof backpacks and other school shooter defense supplies. |
| 103 | * All around America, there's a fleet of anti-abortion trucks that drive around showing graphic pictures of aborted fetuses, partial birth abortions, dismembered fetal body parts compared to everyday items such as erasers, quarters, bottlecaps, on the sides and backs of their trailers. [[http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/school_law/2008/07/read_this_before_that_antiabor.html Here's the link to an article about a confrontation one of the drivers had.]] [[http://www.jillstanek.com/dnc%20truth%20truck%20road.jpg And here is a pic of one of the trucks. (WARNING: SERIOUSLY NSFW.)]] |
| 104 | ** In some places (like Kansas), these types of trucks are parked in front of elementary schools. Just in case a 3rd grader was planning to get an abortion, or something. |
| 105 | ** On the truck's bumper sticker: "Abortion causes breast cancer." Technically, the link is caused by the fact that breast-feeding reduces the chance of breast cancer. Having an abortion raises a pregnant woman's risk of breast cancer, but no more than ''not becoming pregnant in the first place''. |
| 106 | ** Most of those pictures aren't even of what they claim to be, but show the result of stillbirths and miscarriages, because those images make for a higher grade of nightmare fuel. |
| 107 | * There is a [[http://www.flinnsci.com/store/catalogPhotos/AP6373.jpg poster]] in high school chemistry classes: "Carol never wore her safety goggles... [[EyeScream now she doesn't need them]]." The picture beneath is of a blind woman. This poster has gone through MemeticMutation because of how much more alarming and terrible a fate she suffers compared to ''everyone else'' in that particular poster series. |
| 108 | * [[https://vimeo.com/105659640 It only takes a second...]] to be [[{{Narm}} unintentionally]] [[BlackComedy hilarious]]. It’s basically [[Series/AmericasFunniestHomeVideos AFV]] meets “Think About This”. |
| 109 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1d7UA4A2KI This PSA]] about kitchen safety. The cord that turns into a cobra is kind of scary, but it's the evil, laughing pot that does it for most people. |
| 110 | ** The appliances (especially the pot) act like they [[ForTheEvulz really want to hurt children]], then make it clear that [[{{Kayfabe}} it was all just an act]]. |
| 111 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7Y6t0V5IJc This PSA for not swimming where you're not supposed to.]] |
| 112 | * Presumably it was the attempt of the pro-environmental video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjVW6roRs-w No Pressure]], commissioned by 10:10. Basically, it amounts to "[[GaiasVengeance go green or we will murder you in the most graphic way possible]]." |
| 113 | * At the height of the digital piracy panic of the early-mid 2000s came the MPAA's "You Wouldn't Steal a Car" campaign, that mixed shock with some ParanoiaFuel and TotallyRadical imagery and soundtrack. |
| 114 | * Canadian work-safety ads released around 2007 were made even more popular on Website/YouTube when passed around as "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwCyVku1HvI&feature=related seriously disturbing]]"; one includes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llQL9RM_KOo a rising chef about to get married being scalded by boiling water]], including a high-pitched scream that cuts off her narrative and a close-up of her burn-scarred face. As if this weren't bad enough, there's also the implication that her fiance dumped her for having a badly burned face! Others include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mai2s5MSrsc construction accidents]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4X4vyBdHvA a factory accident (in which a man stands up after having a beam driven through him to narrate), and a similarly-narrated retail accident]]. Of course, some people just found the commercials hilarious. |
| 115 | ** Or, alternately, they send an [[AccidentalAesop unintended message:]] "Don't get these jobs. Work in an office where you won't get hurt." That seems to be [[ParanoiaFuel a perfectly natural response]] for people who already have anxiety disorders. |
| 116 | ** Another one featured a construction worker talking about how he's about to [[FatalFamilyPhoto go on vacation with his wife and kids]] fall down to his death in super slow-motion. The lesson here is that when you're on a construction site, [[BreakingTheFourthWall don't walk around talking directly to the camera.]] |
| 117 | * In Canada, the War Amps have intermittently aired a number of [=PSAs=] showing a child-looking robot engaged in energetic, parkour-like play in hazardous, science-fictional environments. They always end the same way: "I am Astar, a robot. I can put my arm back on. You can't, so play safe." |
| 118 | [[/folder]] |
| 119 | |
| 120 | [[folder:Australia/New Zealand]] |
| 121 | Australian [=PSAs=] tend to be made of this trope. As with graphic anti-AIDS adverts, anti-smoking [=PSAs=] frequently show footage of [[BodyHorror diseased and damaged tissues]] (blood clots, mouth and lung cancer, and so on), usually taken from autopsied corpses whose previous owners died of causes related to smoking. Also, photographs of damaged organs are shown on the cigarette boxes along with the written health warning, So, yeah..... Australia beat pretty much everywhere else, at least as far as 'scare 'em straight' [=PSAs=] go. On the other hand, Australian [=PSAs=] about drunk driving are more lighthearted, partly because Australians are more concerned with getting caught by police or just being humiliated than, y'know, the whole "dying" thing. Well... [[EverythingTryingToKillYou They live in Australia]]. |
| 122 | ---- |
| 123 | |
| 124 | * The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U219eUIZ7Qo chilling ad]] for NACAID where the ''Grim Reaper'' goes bowling for AIDS victims may well be the TropeMaker, as it led to [[UnfortunateImplications widespread fear of homosexuals]]. |
| 125 | -->The downside was that {{the Grim Reaper}} [[HeteronormativeCrusader became identified with gay men]] rather than as the Reaper. That was what we had unintentionally produced — [the belief] by some that the Reaper was people with HIV infection, rather than the Reaper harvesting the dead. |
| 126 | * Cracked.com is like one long PSA [[http://www.cracked.com/funny-163-australia not]] to go to [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16868_6-deadliest-creatures-that-can-fit-in-your-shoe.html Australia.]] And yeah, that's some severe {{nightmare fuel}}. |
| 127 | *** To quote Cracked - "Things In Australia That Will Kill You: Everything. No, seriously - everything." "Things In Australia That Will Not Kill You: ... Hugh Jackman seems nice." |
| 128 | * After New Zealand enforced plain packaging for cigarettes (only featuring the brand and the graphic consequences of the habit) and increased regulations in their fabrication in the 2000s, the push towards [[NoSmoking similar restrictions]] in Australia emerged overnight, as well as an effort to scare smokers into quitting. |
| 129 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPuoQ6yb08Q One advert]] basically goes through the Quitline's [[BodyHorror horror folder]], complete with strokes, gangrene, and even mouth cancer. Why must they inflict this on us non-smokers? The song by Music/LeonardCohen makes the ad even creepier. |
| 130 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnTcb-DR4RU One ad]] that was part of the Quitline's infamous "Every Cigarette is Doing You Damage" campaign showed a human aorta (taken from a dead smoker) and then they squeezed the plaque out of it. [[NauseaFuel It was graphic and disturbing]], and it ''showed up on kids' channels''. |
| 131 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM2C0fiZcp8 Another disturbing ad]] from Cancer Institute NSW (New South Wales) showed how a smoker's lung would look if squeezed like a sponge into a beaker: black, thick sludge. This one was also shown frequently during kids' programming. |
| 132 | *** This eventually got a sequel, which shows some sorta X-Ray silhouette of a toddler inhaling second-hand smoke or something. Then it shows toddlers becoming ill and wearing oxygen masks. It also comes with the usual images of [[BodyHorror people's insides rotting]]. |
| 133 | ** Australia had a very clever anti-smoking PSA around 2013 that played with the scare tactic. An advert block would begin with a graphic and depressing "teaser", with the narration telling you how much it hurts and how "death will be the least of your worries", ending on a dark and confusing note. After a few minutes of commercials, the actual PSA appeared, complete with the teaser's dark and depressing narration about the pain, growing symptoms, and how "this is it". Cue the man standing up smiling as the ad says "you've done it, you've quit smoking for good". Turns out it was encouraging you to get through the negative consequences of quitting. It's quite effective when it offers a positive chance at "redemption" from [[FateWorseThanDeath the horrific consequences]] you witnessed not five minutes ago. |
| 134 | * A series of three ads were shown around 2005. They each had a policeman talking about how much it hurts to tell a parent that their child has died. Each one ended with a tip on pool safety for families (e.g ensuring the gate is locked when no-one is swimming). These were often shown before kids' films and on kids' channels, and many children were frightened by the bleak atmosphere of the ads, even though the target audience was parents. |
| 135 | * NSW's speeding campaigns similarly disregard the boring "dying" part, and instead points out that it will make people think you have a small penis. Only in Australia... |
| 136 | ** A rather recent Australian anti-drunk-driving campaign is seriously just "If you drink and drive, you're [[TooDumbToLive a bloody idiot]]". Welcome to Australia. In fact, several ads contain that tagline, primarily from the [[Advertising/TransportAccidentCommission TAC or Transport Accident Commission]], which is well-known for its hard-hitting road safety [=PSAs=], a compilation of which can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTvd-84DI88 here.]] |
| 137 | * The New Zealand [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRDXG5IlP-8 road safety]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm-MhFrL8ms adverts]] where an intersection is compared to a circus wheel of fortune, with the segments marked off as "near miss", "minor crash", "major crash", and "death" — the wheel is spun when the car in the advert makes a risky entrance to an intersection, by the creepiest man to ever be shown on TV. While the crashes are not graphic, the tinkly circus music and whispering background noises, in conjunction with Mr. Creepy, make the ad horrific. |
| 138 | ** They actually had the man go to intersections all over New Zealand and had him sitting and spinning the wheel. Now that's ParanoiaFuel! |
| 139 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMMbVlN-BoY Another safety advert]] comments on drunk driving and is pretty impressive because of its simplicity. |
| 140 | ** One of the less gruesome New Zealand [=PSAs=] over the years. There are countless bloody car wrecks that stick in a New Zealander's mind from childhood in both Speeding and Drinking Campaigns. Perhaps the most prominent is a guy packing out his desk at work, then flashing to 'Minor Accident', where his car crashes into another stopped at a pedestrian crossing, killing a woman while her young child stands there watching his now-deceased mother. |
| 141 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azqc4i7fAC4&feature=related Tracks are for trains.]] (Actually, they kinda held themselves back on that one, at least according to the commenters.) |
| 142 | * New Zealand deliberately averted this trope in a drink-driving campaign aimed at the Maori community. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtWirGxV7Q8 The ad]] showed a boy at a party trying to decide whether to intervene to stop a drunk friend from driving, in a humorous Music/FlightOfTheConchords-esque monologue. The state body responsible for the campaign claimed that they had deliberately been trying to avoid shock approaches because research had shown these to be unsuccessful with the target group of young drivers. The commercial went viral and was a huge success, creating at least two internet memes ("I've been internalizing a really complicated situation in my head" and "You know I can't grab your ghost chips!") |
| 143 | ** Going back further, New Zealand's National Film Unit produced "[[http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/such-a-stupid-way-to-die-1971 Such A Stupid Way To Die]]", a PSA on the dangers of hypothermia in the wilds. When shown in school classrooms, the psychedelic music score and deadpan voiceovers made it unintentionally funny. |
| 144 | [[/folder]] |
| 145 | |
| 146 | [[folder:Europe]] |
| 147 | * Ireland has a serious [[StopBeingStereotypical drunk-driving problem]], and has been producing extremely graphic TV ads for years now to combat it. One of the earlier examples, entitled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pATbxxkoikg "Could you live with the shame?"]], has a man involved in a drink-related crash flying through a fence into someone's back garden and killing their son. |
| 148 | * In 2010 there was a radio ad in Norway that was like this (paraphrased), with all narrator lines being given in the same creepy monotone: |
| 149 | --> Narrator: "here are three lessons in what to tell a loved one who drinks and drives. Repeat after me" |
| 150 | --> Narrator: "you're drunk. You can't drive like this" |
| 151 | --> Young Woman: "you're drunk. You can't drive like this" |
| 152 | --> Narrator: "come on, give me those keys" |
| 153 | --> Young Woman: "come on, give me those keys" |
| 154 | --> Narrator: "I still love you" |
| 155 | --> Young Woman ''(rasping breath, beeping life support in the background)'': "I still love you" |
| 156 | * A drunk-driving PSA, which ran in Romania circa 2008-2009, started out like a car salon presentation: expensive cars with hot girls sprawled over them... and then the camera zooms in on the girls: some are missing limbs, others have half their face burnt off, and such. |
| 157 | * A (thankfully brief) series of AIDS campaigns in France pictured a woman being [[BestialityIsDepraved made love to]] by an enormous spider and a man having sex with a large scorpion. You can see them both [[http://www.nextnature.net/?p=1051 here]]. |
| 158 | * A German anti-AIDS spot became even more controversial by showing a woman having sex with a man whose face is only revealed at the end: it turns out it's [[spoiler:Hitler!]] The tagline: "AIDS is a mass murderer." Watch the video [[http://vimeo.com/6417862 here]], or see the (equally disturbing) print version [[http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/09/05/aids-is-a-mass-murderer-ad-campaign/ here]]. |
| 159 | ** They also used UsefulNotes/JosephStalin and UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein, but not UsefulNotes/SlobodanMilosevic. |
| 160 | * In the 80's, Spain had a Just Say No campaign starring then-FC Barcelona star player Diego Armando Maradona. As you can guess, once Maradona's own drug problems became known, humorists had ''a fucking field day'' parodying it as "if someone offers you cocaine, just say no. I want it all for me." |
| 161 | * And then there's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LpxuMaeI_w a 2011 Italian anti-drug commercial]] where a dude goes on a trip[[note]]not ''that'' kind of trip, at least initially[[/note]] and ''then'' does drugs. Then a girl approaches him, hugging him before quickly morphing into an extremely '''[[NightmareFace hideous]]''' [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffyverse-esque vampire...]] [[BuffySpeak thing]]. A song by Italian pop singer Nek was used as the BGM, [[SoundtrackDissonance with very predictable results.]] Then it turns out to be [[AllJustADream all just some kind of hallucination shit]] and the guy goes away with an actual girl, and after that a message pops up, "Don't do drugs, do your own life", thus ending the ad. |
| 162 | * In Finnish radio, there is a fishing license ad where two men discuss their license situation. One man warns the other: "If you don't have a fishing license, the authorities can take away your equipment." The trick is that the word used for equipment, "vehkeet," can also mean the [[DoubleEntendre male-only equipment]]. |
| 163 | ** In English, they could use the word "tackle". |
| 164 | [[/folder]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext ScareEmStraight / Advertising
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
