History NightmareFuel / PublicServiceAnnouncementsSafety

** Possibly the most horrifying of them all is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u51OxZF1ltI the muesli bar advert]]; the woman advertising them trips on a Tonka truck and lands, ''face-first'', on a glass table. A lingering long shot ensues of her trying to get up off the table and whimpering softly as the narrator reminds viewers that preventing such an accident from happening would be [[ForWantOfANail as easy as tidying toys away when they're not being used]], all while the camera pulls back to show the woman lying face down on the glass, now crying weakly.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qooJ1an6LAQ In another ad]], a pair of hands display shadow puppets of various animals (including a dog, bird, and swan) as whimsical, happy music plays in the background. But when the last animal shown is a "rund" (ox in Dutch), [[LastNoteNightmare the music suddenly takes a sinister twist]] [[MoodWhiplash as it's revealed that one of the puppeteer's hands is completely blown off]] [[{{Fingore}} while the other hand has a missing pinkie]], splayed out to imitate an explosion.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8syQeFtBKc "Evan"]] is ''hugely'' effective. The main story of the PSA appears to be the story of a young boy at high school named Evan who, after scribbling how bored he is on a desk at a library, forms a friendship with an unknown person who replies to his messages. The two eventually meet at the very end of the year while signing yearbooks. And then, another teenage boy walks into the building and cocks his gun, [[MassOhCrap causing everyone to flee in panic]]. It is then revealed that [[FridgeHorror the teen was showing signs of planning a shooting while we were watching Evan]]. We are then shown past scenes replayed with him marked more visibly (the obsession with guns, the self-alienation, being bullied by peers, and posting violent threats online), while a creepy version of the background song from the PSA "Jonny Met June" plays, and it is carefully shot so [[FreezeFrameBonus the average person doesn't even notice him among the other kids]]. It is very shocking to see.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujQ8zvLEsvE&ab_channel=DigitalCinemaMedia This live advertisement in the United Kingdom from St John]] starts off with a history of popcorn, which cuts to a family getting ready to eat the snack until one of the girls starts choking horrifically, with the [[SoundtrackDissonance happy music still playing]]. The mother gets increasingly more worried to the point of tears, with the family having no clue what to do. Luckily, a nurse is able to help and somehow enters the movie itself. The music changing into an ominus [[HellIsThatNoise windy droning noise]] makes it clear the nurse arrived in the nick of time, and only stops once she dislodges the obstruction with three solid slaps to the back. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome The nurse returns to the theater to a well-earned round of applause.]]

* The Scottish Office brought us [[https://youtu.be/5Lw6pfdL5nk this]] beautiful PIF showing a nightmare scenario in which an entire family burns to death. All we see is [[NothingIsScarier flames engulfing a family photograph]]. The man then wakes up from the horrible nightmare, having to live with the guilt of losing his family in a fire as he clutches the photograph.

Accidental gun deaths are tragic enough, but more often, the blood spilt by firearms is ''no accident'', and plenty murderers aren't content with just one. Are you sure there's [[Website/TheOnion no way to prevent this]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%27_Says_Only_Nation_Where_This_Regularly_Happens only nation where this regularly happens]]?

** Another features Peter, Paul, and Mary's song, "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?" remade as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdeq7SMUT3g&feature=youtu.be "Where Have All the Children Gone."]] Just listening to the song is sure to work those tear ducts, and haunt you at the same time. This PSA is a montage of ''actual footage'' of crime scenes, memorial vigils, families reacting to their relatives' and friend's deaths, funerals, etc. Even worse? This ad also appeared during the morning where kids were most likely to be watching.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6QrJCLwtBY Another British anti-piracy ad from 1990]] shows ''Film/TheLastEmperor''... until two men enter the theater and begin painting over the screen in black, while the film plays along as normal. Soon enough they've covered the whole screen in black. Then they draw a TV and turn it on. The same film is shown on the small drawing of the TV, but with distorted sound and picture quality.

Heed these warnings lest you wind up sinking to the bottom of Davy Jones' Locker...

* Sortie en Mer, an interactive French-British website by Guy Cotten on wearing life jackets when going out to sea, is more widely known as a "Drowning Simulator" for good reason. It features a live-action video first-person view of a man who is in the middle of the sea on a sailboat with his friend. Innocent enough, [[MoodWhiplash until your person falls into the water]] (who, of course, doesn't have a life jacket). In what turns into a scarily realistic drowning simulation game, you then have to start using the mouse to scroll upwards in order to keep your person afloat as he waits for his buddy to turn the boat around and rescue him... but sadly, the friend can't/doesn't turn the boat around and/or is unable to see your player (due to your player being carried away by the current of the water as soon as he falls in), and your player [[ForegoneConclusion eventually gets exhausted from trying to stay afloat and drowns]]. The fact that the site afterwards reveals that a person without a life-jacket can keep afloat for ''79 minutes'' before succumbing to fatigue and subsequent drowning [[FridgeHorror just makes it even worse]]. And there's a moment in which your character tears off his fingernail, plate and all. To say nothing of the hallucinations you begin to experience as you approach [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption the auto-fail time (typically between 5 and 6 minutes)]] and [[SanitySlippage hypothermia and exhaustion begin to take their toll on your person's sanity]] -- they change depending on how long you last, and if you make it far enough that the game auto-fails you instead of you simply failing to keep up with the increasing pace, the last thing your person sees before perishing is his friend from the boat waving at him with a creepy smile, in black and white. Notably, it terrified [[WebVideo/{{Markiplier}} Mark]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7d2cvp_bSE iplier]] and [[WebVideo/{{Jacksepticeye}} Jack]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prb42cwJwFs septiceye]].
* The RNLI has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWD46SAUD5s 15-certificate advert shown in cinemas.]] It's shown from the perspective of a man in a harbour trying to stay afloat, the audience is asked to hold their breath every time he goes under the water. After a minute or so of seeing him struggle we are told that you'd be okay holding your breath like that on land, because the average person can hold their breath for 45 seconds, but in the water you'd stand less of a chance because of shock from the cold. It ends with a murky shot of the drowned protagonist as he sinks towards the bottom.
* In 2016 the RNLI [[https://youtu.be/OJrJYzBR7Fk did a series of 15-rated adverts]] about being responsible around rivers and the sea which where also shown in British cinemas. These adverts are in a first-person point of view of someone struggling to stay afloat in a river while their friends or loved ones struggle to save them, only for the person to sink down to their watery demise.

* [[https://youtu.be/UeKgh6uH0NI?t=512 This PSA from the Coast Guard, called "Can't Walk Away,"]] delivers its message in a manner so terrifying that the scene wouldn't be out of place in a surreal horror film. A man casually walks into a parking garage and gets into his car, preparing to drive off somewhere, but as he backs up, he accidentally hits the rear bumper lightly against one of the columns. No big deal, and he simply swears a little as he continues forward... only for the car to start driving like it's on top of ice, wheels spinning fast but car barely sliding anywhere. [[OhCrap And that's when it begins to sink into the ground.]] As liquid concrete pours into the man's car, he screams desperately for help and honks his horn, vainly hoping that someone will come to rescue him, and within just a few seconds, [[BuriedAlive the car sinks beneath the ground's surface,]] never to be seen again. Turns out this is because [[spoiler:the car is ACTUALLY a representation of one's boat, and how, unlike a car, even the slightest accident with a boat can easily cause it to sink. And out in the open ocean, you may be days away from any form of help]].

** Possibly the most horrifying of them all is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u51OxZF1ltI the muesli bar advert]]; the woman advertising them trips on a Tonka truck and lands, ''face-first'', on a glass table. A lingering long-shot ensues of her trying to get up off the table and whimpering softly as the narrator reminds viewers that preventing such an accident from happening would be [[ForWantOfANail as easy as tidying toys away when they're not being used]], all while the camera pulls back to show the woman lying face down on the glass, now crying weakly.

** "Environmental hazard": An emoji is swimming in the ocean and uses a spray can. The spray can kills all the sea creatures and the emoji is eaten by a shark (complete with blood)!

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfuBMIBiwGg Rowan's Law - The Risk]] starts out with a female soccer player training hard and playing harder. Then she starts taking hits to the head. She shakes it off, cools down, resumes training and gets back out there the next day and gets injured again. Rinse, repeat. Her vision becomes blurry, and she gets a nosebleed. Then while training, she throws up. The player keeps pushing through the pain, keeps moving forward... only to collapse on the field while the soccer ball rolls away. The words '''RISK EVERYTHING''' appear on the screen, only for the word '''[[AvertedTrope DON'T]]''' to appear in front of them.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfuBMIBiwGg Rowan's Law - The Risk]] starts out with a female soccer player training hard and playing harder. Then she starts taking hits to the head. She shakes it off, cools down, resumes training and gets back out there the next day and gets injured again. Rinse, repeat. Her vision becomes blurry, and she gets a nosebleed. Then while training, she throws up. The player keeps pushing through the pain, keeps moving forward... only to collapse on the field while the soccer ball rolls away. The words '''RISK EVERYTHING''' appear on the screen, only for the word [[AvertedTrope '''DON'T''']] to appear in front of them.