| 1 | %% Just a reminder that even if a commercial is as poignant as it is scary, you shouldn't sinkhole it to Tear Jerker and Gut Punch. Let's not tell people what emotion they "should" be feeling. |
| 2 | %% Before adding an example, make sure that the PSA in question doesn't already have an example on this page. |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=17039784290.33609000 |
| 5 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 6 | %% |
| 7 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_7079.png]] |
| 8 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zoXgPjYwIQ "Please give us a pound, or we'll have to pull the trigger."]]]] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | ->''The little kitten next door wants to rip your neck out. Everyone is out to kill you. You freeze in terror and urinate in your pants. This is the paranoia of heroin withdrawal, and four out of five who try it, never get off it.'' |
| 11 | -->--Poster for the '''Heroin is Living Hell''' ad campaign, ''Partnership for a Drug-Free Singapore'' [[note]] See it on [[https://sites.google.com/view/lovethepif/posters/drugs this site]] [[/note]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Attentive readers may notice that the NightmareFuel examples that come from [[PublicServiceAnnouncement Public Service Announcements and Public Information films]] vastly outnumber [[NightmareFuel/{{Advertising}} those that come from normal commercials]]. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | This is [[ScareEmStraight no accident]] — the idea ''is'' to drill into people's heads that one instant of carelessness/inattentiveness/failure to heed basic safety rules and regulations, one thoughtless comment or act of anger, one decision to smoke/drink/use drugs can (and often does) result in lifelong consequences, including severe injury or death and emotional scars that last a lifetime. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Some people indeed believe that ScareEmStraight tactics — graphically showing the consequences — are the only way to shock the target audience into following safety rules and regulations at every moment. Or, in the case of abuse of others, be they men, women, children, or animals, to immediately report wrongdoing and ensure that the wrong-doers face justice stat. The other side of the coin is that many of these are simply BrutalHonesty at its finest. When the predictable result happens, it frequently isn't pretty. However horrific these little morality tales may be, if they mean that someone doesn't get splattered across the pavement ''without'' the aid of CG, they have done their job. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 20 | [[folder:Countdowns and Compilations]] |
| 21 | The truly daring can watch one or more of these countdowns of some of the scariest [=PSA=]s and [=PIF=]s, which you can find in the folder below. Some of these countdowns have been compiled and uploaded by members of Website/YouTube's community of PIF reviewers and connoisseurs. They know what they're talking about. Also, discretion is advised — [[SincerityMode there's some pretty nasty stuff in there]]. |
| 22 | * [=HelloImAPizza=]: |
| 23 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j4NStSMCLs "TOP 50: SCARIEST PUBLIC INFORMATION FILMS -- UK"]] ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5hJhTlUQow REDUX]]) |
| 24 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kdFd49mLxw "TOP 50: SCARIEST PSAs -- USA/CANADA"]] |
| 25 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFigJXPGhm8 "TOP 50: SCARIEST PSAs -- AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND"]] |
| 26 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhY0orOFSmc "TOP 100: AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND PSAS"]] |
| 27 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5Gz0LLAQNQ "TOP 50: SCARIEST ANTI-DRUGS PSAs" REDUX]] |
| 28 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kKN8_aa38A "TOP 40:]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyO-2JQR7Fo SCARIEST]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aigcxc4JID0 ANTI-SMOKING]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vjhae3IYCc COMMERCIALS]] (in four parts) |
| 29 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbZcUehR38g "TOP 40:]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsJj-F36D8g SCARIEST]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9aqvVwDLPk PSAs --]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inlajCGLH-4 INTERNATIONAL"]] (also in four parts) |
| 30 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZluxJxftNFI "TOP 10: SCARIEST ANIMAL CRUELTY COMMERCIALS"]] |
| 31 | ** [[http://youtu.be/GGoGvZZjkOo "TOP 10: SCARIEST WORK SAFETY COMMERCIALS"]] |
| 32 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Ob9ugbjDw "TOP 10: MOST POWERFUL CHILD ABUSE COMMERCIALS (18+)"]] |
| 33 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbA1IzE1FaY "TOP 20: SCARIEST FIRE SAFETY COMMERCIALS"]] |
| 34 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7FxLZ2kUU ALMOST EVERY PDFA PSA EVER!]] |
| 35 | * [=LateNightLogoTV's=] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5zGKNg2W4Y "Top 50 Scariest Public Information Films"]] |
| 36 | * Media Entertainment's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u-Z1zU9Sho "Top 50 Scariest Public Service Announcements]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_BweAIXgR4 and Public Information Films"]] (in two parts) |
| 37 | * Nathan Rimmer's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCmAR7nrb5U "100 SCARIEST BRITISH]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GyjAuIfdXg PUBLIC INFORMATION FILMS"]] (in two parts) |
| 38 | * JA 64's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2aqy2iS8I4 "Top 10]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3eCflUy-Wk scary pifs"]] (in two parts) |
| 39 | * Peachy's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aYGsR5Bi1E "PIFReview Special -- Peachy's Top Ten Scariest PIFs!"]] |
| 40 | * easportsbig899: |
| 41 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaUVFGpjTUM "My Top 10 Scariest PIFs"]] |
| 42 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjl05Z7JVxI "My Top 10 Next Scariest PIFs"]] |
| 43 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d0GT6u9Z88 "MY Top 10 Even Scarier PIFs"]] |
| 44 | ** [[https://youtu.be/UYF6N8OkeV0 "PIF Collection -- Top 100 Scary Pifs"]] |
| 45 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtP5h_9SGiVNMXfEirbUbrlJTm8jDFWef "Scary PIFs" playlist]] |
| 46 | * Thelolmonster's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDos5g_FPdc "PIF collections: Top 10 Scariest"]] |
| 47 | * Website/{{Cracked}}: |
| 48 | ** [[http://www.cracked.com/video_19730_6-psas-that-are-freaking-nightmares.html 6 PSAs That Are Freaking Nightmares]] |
| 49 | ** [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16051_the-10-most-disturbing-psas-from-around-world.html The 10 Most Disturbing PSA's From Around the World]] |
| 50 | * [=WatchMojo=]'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9-E1p9tUWc "Top 10 Disturbing PSAs"]] |
| 51 | * Emilightning's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80v7KugHhnA "My Top 10 Scariest PSAs"]] |
| 52 | * Love The PIF: |
| 53 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e04a2jvdGCw "Top 10 Scariest Road Safety PIFs/PSAs"]] |
| 54 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF-laMcN9dM "Top 10 Scariest Anti-Alcohol PIFs/PSAs"]] |
| 55 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVSdS6qOWWI "Top 10 Scariest Anti-Violence PIFs/PSAs"]] |
| 56 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORCtErZPoBg "Top 10 Scariest Animal Welfare PIFs/PSAs"]] |
| 57 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L-RrIPDx_g "Top 50 Scariest Anti-Drug PIFs/PSAs"]] |
| 58 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTo1uilV8lY "Top 50 Scariest Anti-Tobacco PIFs/PSAs"]] |
| 59 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFFvPbHCLFQ "Top 50 Fire Safety PIFs/PSAs"]] |
| 60 | * Emilightning's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-z83Yci0M4 "Top 30 Scariest PSAs"]] |
| 61 | * rocketracoon19: |
| 62 | ** [[https://youtu.be/-XlMq0809SI TOP 30 SCARIEST CANADIAN PSAS]] |
| 63 | ** [[https://youtu.be/gBMtqvmw4P4 TOP 40 SCARIEST NEW ZEALAND PSA’S]] |
| 64 | ** [[https://youtu.be/DY6H01TX6rM TOP 80 SCARIEST EUROPEAN PSAS]] |
| 65 | ** [[https://youtu.be/yJpUU-1vjqI TOP 30 SCARIEST ASIAN PSAS]] |
| 66 | ** [[https://youtu.be/ZtUt-V3WaCA TOP 30 SCARIEST PSAS (SOUTH AMERICA, MEXICO, AFRICA)]] |
| 67 | ** [[https://youtu.be/Xc4tgNyR_uQ TOP 90 SCARIEST]] [[https://youtu.be/JqKnBhMQQp8 PUBLIC INFORMATION FILMS (UK)]] (split into two parts) |
| 68 | ** [[https://youtu.be/siLt13h306U TOP 10 SCARIEST FRENCH PSA’s]] |
| 69 | ** [[https://youtu.be/e39r6KKrbz8 TOP 25 FAVORITE COMMERCIALS/PSAs]] |
| 70 | ** [[https://youtu.be/iaoNfFmkP9o TOP 15 SCARIEST PSA’S OF ALL TIME]] |
| 71 | * Night Sky: |
| 72 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRWHMs9xLDg&t=38s Top 50 Scariest Public Information Films Of All Time]] ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geqQ4aW2TQM Reloaded]]) |
| 73 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJWcDe3Fmog&t=1405s Top 50 Scariest Abuse PSAs]] |
| 74 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKB9kt0b8QM Top 40 Fire Safety PSAs (& Firework Safety PSAs)]] |
| 75 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk2SWezHN_E&t=951s Top 30 Scariest Animal Abuse PSAs]] |
| 76 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0dHiIEZJWg&t=3s Top 75 Scariest Anti-Drug PSAs]] |
| 77 | * Savox's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IItxq6Fl__c 9 DISTURBING British PSAs]] |
| 78 | * Creator/AntonioTheSheep: |
| 79 | ** [[https://youtu.be/LL-IB8G-J0c?si=F78evrP8G5Kcaxay Top 75 Scariest PSAs]] |
| 80 | ** [[https://youtu.be/-RR0YR2WvA0?si=bxcQGb2C7c7BXBVs Top 35 Scariest Eastern European PSAs]] |
| 81 | ** [[https://youtu.be/QeVQAP-oteU?si=rG9wE27eSO9yk97J Top 50 Scariest South/Southeast Asian PSAs]] |
| 82 | ** [[https://youtu.be/2Xoif7YdU6I?si=OGn40z3ye9RDqE_f Top 20 Scariest War PSAs]] |
| 83 | ** [[https://youtu.be/xGvI1JgoFsI?si=ltlOS86F_X6hZbW4 Top 30 Scariest German PSAs]] |
| 84 | ** [[https://youtu.be/DCJTZphvwR0?si=G7m4jTbS7IETOI3T Top 30 Scariest Brazilian PSAs]] |
| 85 | [[/folder]] |
| 86 | |
| 87 | Due to the vast quantity of ads that could qualify as NightmareFuel, the following topics have their own pages. Particularly notable campaigns and organisations have their own folders. |
| 88 | * [[NightmareFuel/PublicServiceAnnouncementsHealth Health]] (alcohol, smoking, drugs, diseases, medical awareness and dental health) |
| 89 | * [[NightmareFuel/PublicServiceAnnouncementsSafety Safety]] (including children, fire, fireworks, guns, crime and the workplace) |
| 90 | * [[NightmareFuel/PublicServiceAnnouncementsTransportSafety Transport Safety]] (safety with cars and other vehicles) |
| 91 | |
| 92 | !! Animal Cruelty |
| 93 | Remember all those times as a kid you were told that "owning a pet is a big responsibility"? Well, this is what they were talking about. |
| 94 | [[folder:''RSPCA'']] |
| 95 | RSPCA [=PIF=]s: |
| 96 | * A [[https://youtu.be/5mR7aky1AqE cinema ad from the late 80s (rated 18)]] started off with a dark, slow zoom in on a dog with an instrumental "How Much is That Doggy in the Window?" song being played over it. After a while though, the dog looks to his right and sees ''a gun pointed at his face'' with a voice over telling us to give them (the RSPCA) a pound, or otherwise, they'll have to pull the trigger (pictured above), either giving us the message that if they don't get enough funds, they might as well stop what they're doing or have to kill off animals they can no longer take care of (due to overbreeding). It could possibly be sad as well, particularly due to the [[TheWoobie sad look]] in the dog's eyes... [[note]] [[NightmareRetardant or it could come off as funny]], if you live in the US and remember this [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c1/Natlamp73.jpg/220px-Natlamp73.jpg strangely similar magazine cover]] from Film/NationalLampoon.[[/note]] |
| 97 | -->'''Narrator:''' Please give us a pound, or we'll have to pull the trigger. |
| 98 | ** Unsurprisingly, the ad provoked a massive outcry, and was quickly withdrawn. A [[https://youtu.be/fOpyFpFZBCI television variant]] was significantly calmer, as a child sings the song instead, the background is gray, and there is no gun at the end. |
| 99 | --->'''Narrator:''' Before you give someone a dog this Christmas, please count the cost. |
| 100 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul_KND7SQRU&ab_channel=easportsbig899 This 1990 public information film from the RSPCA]] about abandoning pets. We see a dog in a dark room getting blindfolded while the camera slowly zooms in on his eyes while dramatic timpani rolls play. While all this is happening, we're told that anyone who thoughtlessly gives a pet as a present, could be condemning it to death, because every year thousands of pets end up unloved, unwanted, and abandoned. |
| 101 | * Another RSPCA cinema ad from the early 90s titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X68HUSjvteo Sam]]" involves a dog being placed in an oven whimpering as the announcer compares the heat in the oven to the heat in a locked car on a hot day. It ends [[NothingIsScarier not telling you of the dog's fate]] as you hear one last whimper. Also, the BBFC rated it "U", meaning they found it suitable for '''4-year-olds''' and above. |
| 102 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAeNIUMgius "Kitten".]] A longer spot than those named so far; close-up of an adorable ginger kitten's face, apparently sleeping peacefully, while a hand strokes its head and the narrator placidly wonders what "they" dream about. Cut to RSPCA officer Mike rushing to a scene while the dispatcher warns that she's "got a nasty one" for him. A tearful woman indicates some unnamed person in her household has thrown the kitten against the wall, and it is no longer moving. A moment later officer Mike leaves the house with a sober expression, carrying a small cloth bundle; fellow officer peers beneath and remarks "poor little mite". Cut back to the opening scene where the narrator observes that animals are not toys or punching bags and that in a better world "we'd be looking for a new home for you." Pull back to see the person stroking the kitten was a vet who could not save her. The kitten lies lifeless on a steel table, with a tiny RSPCA body-bag and zip-tie waiting nearby. [[note]]NightmareRetardant can kick in when you consider the fact that NoAnimalsWereHarmed. Said kitten really was sleeping on the cold metal table during filming. In addition, if you pay attention to the final shot, you can notice that the cat was replaced with a fake one (compare the thickness of the ears and the overall pose for reference).[[/note]] |
| 103 | -->'''Narrator:''' What do they dream of? Chasing butterflies, playing in the grass... or just curled up in the lap of someone who loves them...\ |
| 104 | They're not just objects, not targets or punch bags, not toys to throw away when people are tired of them. If things were different, we'd be looking for a new home for with people who'd give you care and affection... but you'll never know how sweet life can be. |
| 105 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GwVZwbbhgM "My Little Puppy".]] Done in the style of a really saccharine toy commercial, it is actually a scathing commentary on people who buy pets with no thought that pet ownership comes with responsibility — training, housebreaking, regular feeding, actually paying attention to them. The {{anvilicious}} ending pulls no punches in condemning the attitude that pets are as disposable as an unwanted toy. |
| 106 | * "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHQbDmtCX6Y Swim]]" was produced by the same company that brought us the anti-fox-hunting film with the shot of a real carcass (see the Wildlife folder). It is shot in a first-person view of two dogs following their owner, who is supposedly taking them for a swim. However, the ad takes a turn for the worse midway through, where all of a sudden the dog says that he's "Never been down this way before... usually we go where there's more people." Things get even worse when the dog notes that it feels colder than he can take. Then, he notes that it's "so cold, our best friend puts us in a ''sack'' to keep us warm!", just as he covers up the camera with said sack. And at that point, we know ''exactly'' what he's about to do. And if you couldn't figure it out by then, after the RSPCA hotline is shown, we see the owner tying up the bag before presumably throwing it out into the canal. Rated 15 for cinema release. |
| 107 | -->'''Dog:''' ''I hope it doesn't slip, 'cause it'd be very difficult to swim in this small sack.'' |
| 108 | * "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV3VaYel3Bs Yard]]" works in much the same way as "Swim", except here it follows the POV of a dog locked in the titular yard, [[BewilderingPunishment wondering what it was she did to deserve this punishment]], and thinking about how tired and thirsty she is. Her vision blurs as she is dying from dehydration. She then comments "Just like to see my friend once more, to say sorry for the terrible thing that I did. Wonder what it was..." as a ball lands next to her, and she sees two kids looking over the fence at her. Unlike "Swim", it's clear that something bad is happening from the start, but it ends with a third-person shot of the police arriving to take away the abused dog, [[RayOfHopeEnding giving us the slight possibility that she might be saved]]. Rated 15 for cinema release. |
| 109 | * "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRjPOLccyMg Comparison]]" is pure unadulterated BodyHorror, contrasting the life cycle of an egg-laying, normal growing chicken with that of a broiler chicken. While the egg-laying chicken slowly grows healthy, the broiler chicken, which is bred to grow faster, will develop bone deformities and difficulty breathing. |
| 110 | -->'''Narrator:''' Do we ''really'' want our food this fast? |
| 111 | * "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksgt-ROcaX0 Oven]]" starts off ominously, then gets worse. Much like "Sam", it involved animals in an oven (although with chickens this time instead of a dog), but it's just as bad, if not worse because at the end, after the text about chickens suffering in overcrowded sheds, [[SoundOnlyDeath we hear]] the real sounds of many live chickens suffering inside a factory farm. And yes, it received a U rating from the BBFC despite this. |
| 112 | -->''[[NoAnimalsWereHarmed No chickens suffered in the making of this commercial.]]'' ''Unlike the millions we believe suffer in overcrowded sheds each year.'' |
| 113 | * Australia's RSPCA often makes lighthearted [=PIFs=] in contrast to their UK cousins, but a few of them stand out for being quite unsettling: |
| 114 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQAOhH1TbCU "Hit"]] shows a man beating his wife when suddenly the woman's cries of pain are replaced by the sounds of a dog getting beaten. A caption then appears coldly telling the audience that [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals 37% of violent criminals abused animals]] in their '''[[EnfantTerrible childhood]]''', and the RSPCA runs programs to teach kids to respect animals. |
| 115 | ** [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yp-oKXZh-Co "Cruise"]] shows actual images of sheep being crammed onto a ship for trading in appalling conditions presented as a slideshow. All the while, a narrator pitches it as if it were a cruise ship. The grimy filter put over the images and the brooding music don’t help. |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | [[folder:Miscellaneous -- Household Pets]] |
| 118 | * From the National Canine Defense League (currently known as Dogs Trust): |
| 119 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzH_apmrDvg "Spot the Difference"]] shows us two identical dogs. One dog was bred in a puppy farm while the other dog wasn't. The puppy farm dog was deprived of human contact, may develop all kinds of diseases and will prove to be a dangerous hazard to children. Can you tell which is the puppy farm dog? Neither can the narrator. |
| 120 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TWDTD_HAZs A somewhat unsettling cinema PIF]] that's apparently rated U shows a simple shot of a tired and sad dalmatian lying on a red blanket. The camera slowly zooms out to reveal that ''the dog is locked in a cage, presumably in a shelter'' while a haunting instrumental of "Silent Night" plays. The ad closes with the dog curling up dejectedly and the tagline "A dog is for life. Not just for Christmas." Not to mention that the ad was sponsored by Creator/{{Disney}}, and has a link for kids to play a "cyber-puppy" game. |
| 121 | * [[http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2006/aspca-whatever-you-can-imagine-weve-seen-worse/ These ASPCA print ads]] are certainly short and not at all sweet. They show an animal and two other objects [[NothingIsScarier and claim that the things ASPCA have seen are worse than any scenario your imagination can put together with them]]. The creepiest one of them is definitely the one that involves [[FridgeHorror a dog, a video tape]], [[BestialityIsDepraved and a jar of Vaseline]]. |
| 122 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dFdo47pK1Q This Animal Aid PIF]] takes this trope one step further by depicting an electronic toy puppy being euthanized by having a needle injecting it. |
| 123 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSCPHBD9upo A PIF from the Scottish Government]] (cert. 15) has a first-person perspective and a child's voice-over, as a man takes takes the child to a suburban house, where he sells her to a woman who "still wanted me, even though I had no papers". We're led to believe that the ad is about to deliver a message about human trafficking. The ending reveals it's something else entirely. |
| 124 | -->'''Narrator:''' I'm from a puppy farm, and in a week, I'll be dead. |
| 125 | * Sneha's Care, a company in Kathmandu, UsefulNotes/{{Nepal}}, released a short film called "[[https://youtu.be/Gl1qgp9KLJA Tale of a Dog]]". A dog (possibly a Shiba Inu) named Snow is with his owners at the park. The little girl who owns Snow is playing fetch with him. Unfortunately, the ball travels too far away and Snow is lost after being distracted by an inflatable toy zebra. A man tries to help find Snow to no avail. As the family puts up wanted posters, Snow is repeatedly abused. He nearly has his zebra taken and is pushed by mean kids, and has water dumped on him. He falls asleep in a box and a cruel chef hits him with a broom when he wakes up. Snow later becomes hungry and bursts into the cafe, scaring a girl. The chef is so furious that he [[MoralEventHorizon poisons some food and feeds it to Snow with an evil smile on his face]]. Snow slowly attempts to limp home, still carrying the zebra. His owners are outside waiting for him. The little girl is distressed at the sight of her poor dirty dog. A black-and-white flashback plays, revealing that her first zebra toy popped and Snow wanted to bring her a new one. Snow's eyes then close as he dies from the poison and his family cries. The message of the film is even if you hate animals, please do not hurt them. You'll be fearing for your pet's life after watching this. |
| 126 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCsYGoSCNvU&ab_channel=rocketraccoon19 This 2001 ad from Spain]] advocates against gift animals by having a dialogue of a little boy begging his mother to give him a puppy for Christmas juxtaposed to videos of miserable looking stray dogs. The real kicker is the last clip of the montage, as it shows unwanted dogs getting corralled by a pound and finally the shot of someone euthanizing a dog with a bolt gun in a small JumpScare. |
| 127 | -->'''Narrator:''' Every Christmas, thousands of parents say yes when they should be saying no. |
| 128 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLfnq7n7T2I&ab_channel=rocketraccoon19 Another Spanish PSA from 2001]] describes some nauseating situations. We have children sitting in a brown room speaking about what they do to kill animals, such as pulling feathers off birds, taking heads off lizards, etc. We also get to see unsettling shots of animal corpses, including one of a ''cat''. |
| 129 | -->'''Narrator:''' If you want to teach them to love people, first teach them to love animals. |
| 130 | * IFAW did [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMyNDjfLN0g an anti-puppy mill PSA]] called ''Advertising/SuzyPuppy'' for their P.U.P.S. campaign which is disguised as a toy commercial, advertising a toy puppy named Suzy, accompanied with cheerful music. As the little girl puts her down, we see that the toy puppy is suffering from the deadly parvovirus, severe conjunctivitis (pinkeye) that is so bad her eye is oozing pus and bulging out of her head, and diarrhea as the girl gets increasingly more worried. When the girl presses the toy's paw, it whimpers. The narrator says that Suzy's mother spends her life confined in darkness. We then see the scared little girl holding Suzy as we're informed with the dog's severe sickness, she'll probably be dead in weeks. The video ends with the poor little girl burying the toy dog in the yard as we hear the music becoming distorted and slowing down. |
| 131 | * In 1999, the Thai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals released a very disturbing (and NSFW) ad entitled [[https://adsspot.me/media/tv-commercials/thai-society-for-the-prevention-of-cruelty-to-animals-tspca-mans-best-friend-eac06a9f5aa3 Man's Best Friend.]] It starts off with a dog standing in a dark alleyway, accompanied by soothing piano music. Text appears describing the dog as a loving pet, a security guard, a faithful buddy, and a member of the family. As a man comes to walk his dog home, the text "man's best friend" appears. But then, we are suddenly treated to ''real footage of a different man whipping his dog with a Kendo stick,'' which is heavily pixelated. While the dog whimpers in pain, we cut to a new message on a black screen: "Every year, over 2 million dogs are murdered for dinner. Do the right thing for your best friend. Call the TSPCA now. ''Please.''" Talk about MoodWhiplash! The fact that the [[SoundtrackDissonance calm piano music continues throughout the whole ad]] doesn't help. You'll definitely want to give your own dog a big hug after watching this ad! |
| 132 | * The American Humane Association released [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQEgoYGsMPE this advert]] in 1990, which shows photos of serial killer Jeffery Dahmer from age 8 to his thirties, whilst also showing captions of the cruel things he did to animals. Each one is equally shocking: he poured motor oil into a bowl full of tadpoles when he was eight, decapitated a dog and mounted the head on a stake in his teens, and stripped the flesh off roadkill in his twenties. The last caption reads, "We all know what he did when he was thirty." The scary music adds to the nightmarish atmosphere of the PSA. |
| 133 | -->'''Tagline:''' Take animal abuse seriously. Report it. |
| 134 | * Ad Council UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} released [[https://youtu.be/Pdq9zLa_ync?t=544 this somber ad]] that displays various abandoned pet care items, along with the excuses their presumed owners had for getting rid of them, and then tells us that "That was the real cause of death." |
| 135 | -->Dogs and cats are killed every day for such selfish reasons.\ |
| 136 | To keep a living thing for life... Are you prepared to keep a living thing for life? |
| 137 | * [[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oxyTHH89vYKPcI8QtnyeMKZMvyPNE1mk/view This one from Japan]] shows a dog ''getting executed in a gas chamber'' as the poor dog whimpers and cries while tapping on the glass barrier, desperately wanting to escape. We then SmashCut to a tagline informing us that ''45,000 dogs and cats'' get shoved in a gas chamber every year. And to top it all off, we get to see another dog locked up in a cage getting shoved into a gas chamber, ready to be executed. Don't throw away your pets, indeed. |
| 138 | * The Animals Asia Foundation put out [[https://youtu.be/vilIK86UkTo this absolutely horrific PSA]] about the practice of [[AsiansEatPets slaughtering animals for food]], where a man grinds meat ''over the gutwrenching sounds of a dog whimpering in pain as it is (presumably) put through a meat grinder.'' |
| 139 | --> "Every year, millions of dogs are slaughtered for food in Asia. It's believed the more excruciating the death, the better the meat will taste. Dogs are our best friend, not food. Help us keep it that way." |
| 140 | [[/folder]] |
| 141 | [[folder:Miscellaneous -- Livestock]] |
| 142 | * An organization called Compassion in World Farming created [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LcoClM-tQk an 18-rated PIF for theatres]] called "Welcome to the Battery" encouraging people to buy free range eggs by giving audiences a glimpse into the lives of battery farm chickens. It starts with a bespectacled David Graham informing the audience that they will soon be confined to cages "for your protection", that eating, sleeping, and defecating will cause discomfort and that their teeth and nails will be surgically removed ("This greatly reduces incidents of cannibalism."). Why? Because they are about to become part of "one of the world's most cost-effective production systems." [[BlatantLies "You have nothing to worry about."]] Cue real footage of chickens in rows of cramped cages in a battery farm. "This system has been tested on 45 million specimens. [[YouBastard With, I might add, your approval.]] Welcome to the battery." We close on one sickly-looking chicken which seems to be having trouble breathing as CIWF implores you to buy free range eggs. ("They don't cost this much.") |
| 143 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJFKwEfQsvQ Animals Australia made an ad]] to denounce the Australian pork industry's inhumane conditions for their livestock. They do this by animating a pig named Lucy in a slaughterhouse confined to a tight cage to talk and voiced over by a little girl, who complains about her condition. A narrator afterwards tells you that it is commonly accepted that pigs have the intelligence of a 3-year-old child. What makes this deeply unnerving is that the background noises throughout the ad are made up of children crying, meant to represent other pigs in the slaughterhouse. There's also the fact that the pig in the video continually stares directly at the camera through most of the ad... |
| 144 | * World Animal Protection [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucVy6YlpMDw released a PSA]] on Website/YouTube against factory farms. It begins with the phrase, "Ever heard the sound of suffering?", before asking the viewer to raise their device's volume up. After a few seconds, you hear the loud sounds of ''squealing and suffering animals, combined with flashing visuals of animals in factory farms''. Needless to say, warnings have appeared on social media asking those with panic attacks and anxiety to leave the video, as the ad is ''unskippable and plays out in its entirety.''. |
| 145 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lmDrg9oCu8 This horrifying 2014 ad from The Humane Society]] starts by showing a [[UsefulNotes/McDonalds literal happy meal.]] Said meal's smile quickly turns into a frown as it cuts to a graphic montage of chickens and chicks suffering abuse in the farms, including a chicken with a broken leg and a chick bleeding ''very'' profusely from the head. It ends with the narrator urging us to take action by contacting Unhappymeals.com as we pull back to the still frowning happy meal. |
| 146 | -->'''Narrator:''' [[UsefulNotes/McDonalds McDonald's]] calls them "happy meals"... or are they more like unhappy meals? |
| 147 | * The Humane Society collaborated with Creator/TaikaWaititi to make a 3-minute stop-motion short titled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G393z8s8nFY "Save Ralph"]] that was uploaded to their Youtube and Platform/{{Vimeo}} accounts on April 6, 2021, to help ban animal testing for cosmetics. The short [[AllStarCast features an all-star multinational cast]] (such as Taika Waititi, Creator/RickyGervais, Creator/ZacEfron, Creator/OliviaMunn, Creator/PomKlementieff, Creator/RodrigoSantoro, Creator/TriciaHelfer and other actors) voicing characters in the short. The short is focused on Ralph the rabbit (voiced by Taika Waititi) talking to an off-screen documentary crew talking about his daily life in a testing facility inside his house. At first, it appears mundane, but the rabbit is clearly in terrible shape (blind in his right eye, his right ear can only hear ringing, and he mentions "chemical burns on his back") but tries to shrug it off. Eventually, a live-action human hand grabs Ralph and prepares him for another day at the testing facility. Before it begins, Ralph encounters four rabbits that just arrived and asks Ralph to get them out of there. Ralph then tells them that he's filming a documentary, and the four rabbits ask Ralph to tell the viewers to help save them. Suddenly, a human hand appears and begins squirting a chemical substance into his eye with Ralph trying to act calm, only to start yelling [[ClusterBleepBomb profanity that gets bleeped out]] as the four rabbits start panicking and screaming. Also doubles as a TearJerker since Ralph reveals that his family has been living their lives in an animal testing facility. |
| 148 | * Creator/PeterDinklage narrated this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKWKUU0XQ8U sickening video]] titled "Face Your Food", which reveals the dark secret behind milk, eggs, and meat as Peter treats you to the sight of many animals facing brutal ends at slaughterhouses (but the worst sight is with no doubt the scene where ''chickens are throat-slitted'' '''''en masse'''''). For non-vegans, it makes you feel disgusted and guilty about what you eat. For vegans, it's a reminder about why they turned to vegetarianism in the first place. |
| 149 | * Back in 2018, the Humane Farming Association uploaded two [[https://youtu.be/gS0hEm56Viw disturbing videos]] on their Website/YouTube channel that had stop motion chickens telling the viewers how the people who owned battery farms were making it so that said battery farms were legal despite the horrible conditions their chickens are kept in. Just hearing the chickens cry out for help with chants of "We'll never get out! We'll never get out! We'll never get out!" is enough to linger in your mind. |
| 150 | * [[https://youtu.be/y532zME7iY0 This South African PSA]] about Karakul sheep starts out as a mock-fantasy tale about a little lamb named Clarence, with "beautiful black curls", and his first day alive after being born, with the narrator describing his mother as "welcoming him to the world". Cue a SmashCut to a black screen as the sound of a guillotine is heard, followed by text describing how Karakul lambs are [[WhamLine slaughtered for their pelts within moments of being born.]] The ''incredibly'' abrupt MoodWhiplash is definitely enough to leave someone taken by surprise. |
| 151 | [[/folder]] |
| 152 | !! Bullying and Racism |
| 153 | If anyone here still thinks that SchoolBullyingIsHarmless, then perhaps these adverts ought to set the record straight. |
| 154 | [[folder:Bullying]] |
| 155 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4s5DA90L0k "Broken Toy"]], an anti-bullying video. The shots of the children are grainy in a documentary style, with mumbled, very real-sounding dialogue. It features a young boy who was constantly being bullied; at one point he manages to make a friend with another boy, who is later shown having to move away. Eventually, the boy is taunted so badly that he's pushed out into a street, gets hit by a car, and nearly dies. One of the really scary things about this video isn't so much the video itself as the fact that schoolyard bullies ''can'' really be this bad. It proves that [[ChildrenAreInnocent kids aren't always good]], [[KidsAreCruel they can be rotten too]]. [[note]](In the end, the principal counsels the guilty children, informing them that he, too, was bullied and that it is not fun being on the receiving end before he reveals that their victim had lost his entire family in a car accident several years earlier.)[[/note]] |
| 156 | * One extended PSA made by the same producers called [[https://vimeo.com/151227508 "Tears on the Highway"]], with a similar message to the above one, was shown at local elementary schools and kindergartens. It features, again, a young boy being bullied on a school bus full of children. As the situation escalates from the bullies verbally abusing the kid to a fistfight, the bus driver gets distracted. This proves to be disastrous, as the bus ends up '''getting into a full-on collision with a semi-truck, killing nearly every child on it, including the young boy''' (there's no GoryDiscretionShot either — ''you watch as these kids die horrible deaths''). As the video ends, a camera zooms into the boy's smiling face as the scene fades to red. Need we remind you that this was shown to ''kindergarteners''? |
| 157 | * An anti-bullying PSA showed a kid being bullied, and each day the bullies get more aggressive, on the final day you see the kid standing on a chair — he kicks the chair away and his legs stay suspended, and immediately, you can tell that he's been DrivenToSuicide. |
| 158 | ** A [[https://vimeo.com/398473137 PSA]] by the organization Cybersmile known as [[EngineeredHashtag #DONTRETALIATE]] has a similar ending. A girl uploads to Website/YouTube her cover of "People Help The People" by Birdy, which plays throughout the PSA to sobering effect. Another girl bullies her for her appearance and voice, so she bullies her back, as nooses start to drop onto their heads. They continue to bully each other back and forth as they go about their day, the nooses going around their necks and continually getting tighter and tighter. One of the girls, with the noose particularly tight on her neck, gives her mother a happy smile, a very somber display of how those with suicidal thoughts can seem like happy people on the outside. Eventually, after typing one last insult, one of the girls finds the noose pulling her upwards and hanging her, as her chair falls back and her shoes fall to the ground, with shots of the shadow of her lifeless body for good measure. Also a TearJerker. |
| 159 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx6EfFSafEE This PSA from Japan]] discusses "Ijime" (Japanese for bullying or intimidation). It shows a group of schoolchildren wearing [[WhiteMaskOfDoom eerie white masks]], complete with narrow slits for their eyes and mouth. Luckily, the ad begins to take a [[LighterAndSofter lighter tone]] when the schoolchildren then remove their masks, revealing their smiling faces underneath. Also helping is the cheery music in the background and the image of a white mask clattering to the ground concluding the PSA. |
| 160 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFiOASTrivQ&t=1 One parody]] of Celebrities Read Mean Tweets started off lighthearted enough and even has a laugh track playing in the background. But the laugh track becomes quieter and quieter as the tweets become increasingly mean-spirited. Eventually, even the music completely grinds to a stop as a girl reads the final tweet: [[SuicideDare "No one likes you. Do everyone a favour. Just kill yourself."]] She then walks away and the {{tagline}} appears on screen "{{Cyberbullying}} is no joke". |
| 161 | * The UsefulNotes/UnitedArabEmirates' du Channel put out some very disturbing spots on the dangers of posting horrific acts on social media. The worst part is that these are all RippedFromTheHeadlines: |
| 162 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Lo8XyncmU This ad]] features a POV shot of a young woman, presumably a maid, making a [[DrivenToSuicide suicide attempt]] by jumping off her apartment's balcony. The wife of the person she was working for, who was arguing with her husband off-screen, comes into the kitchen with a threat that she will share her actions with her master and everyone else if she doesn't come back to her. The maid gets distracted and slips off the railing, and despite the woman's attempt to save her, she loses her grip and splats on the street, [[WhatHaveIDone with the woman having it recorded on her iPhone]]. |
| 163 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13e8gNKjmhY Another ad]] shows a POV shot of a boy applying his headscarf and making his way to his locker. As he pulls out a notebook while looking at his headscarf in the mirror, two bullies confront him by slamming the locker shut. One boy not only pulls the scarf off of his head but whacks him with it, [[KidsAreCruel while the other bully records it on his iPhone]]. |
| 164 | ** Things go up to eleven in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIj8v-EiGWM this spot]]. A young woman notices the smoke alarm going off in her room and walks to the door. When she opens the door ([[TemptingFate using a scarf as the handle is burning hot]]), ''a fire breaks out in the hallway''. She runs to the window and tries to scream for help as the flames spread to her room, but no one listens, [[MoralEventHorizon and a bystander on the street even has it recorded on his iPhone]]. |
| 165 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0spBIFK3q7o This spot]] depicts a man taking the bus late at night along with several other pedestrians, only for a terrible crash to send the bus tumbling all over, tossing everyone into the walls and out the windows. He awakens to the sight of someone exploring the wreckage, but as with the others, [[ComeToGawk he's only interested in recording the aftermath on his iPhone]]. What's worse, ''you can actually see the man pass out (or die)'' in the last split-second of the ad. |
| 166 | --->#[=PostWisely=] |
| 167 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1DMkw94bqA&ab_channel=easportsbig899 This 2009 public information film]] shows a girl playing with a piece of thread while a song plays. It then turns out that she has sewn her own mouth. This ad was eventually banned on TV and continued to be shown in cinemas with a 12A rating. |
| 168 | [[/folder]] |
| 169 | !!Racism and Hatred |
| 170 | {{Prejudice|Tropes}} was and still is among humanity's most insidious evils by far, as these adverts can attest to. |
| 171 | [[folder:Racism and Hatred]] |
| 172 | * A 1980s-era anti-hate PSA created by the Jewish Chautauqua Society, in which we see a cartoon man walk towards the viewer with an [[HighPressureEmotion increasingly red and angry face that gets bigger and bigger until said face fills up the entire screen and then explodes]]. In the background, we can hear a song: "When you hate/who do you hurt the most?/Hate hurts '''YOU!'''" In this case, the angry cartoon man's face exploding is timed to go along with the "YOU!" part of the song. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBatcfdRDA0 Here's the ad]] in question. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-6-0syytr4 The full version of the ad]] began with said cartoon man walking from a distance before heading towards the viewer, and the narrator had an echoing, ominous voice, "Hate. It's a poison that corrodes. An acid that erodes. Your body, mind, and soul." That version scared children, and they had to tone it down, and it was lost media until August of 2023. |
| 173 | * This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=trueview-instream&v=twGDu9UfVZ4 Israeli anti-racism ad]]. Not only does the heavy metal rendition of UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}'s national anthem sound scary, but if you happen to know the Hebrew lyrics, things get worse. |
| 174 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JcBHbO8aKo This PSA]] about racial acceptance was meant to be uplifting, but the {{claymation}} animated shoes are a bit too deep in the UnintentionalUncannyValley for most. |
| 175 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymUKm3o5kno A chilling 1998 anti-sectarianism PIF from the British government's Northern Ireland Office]] begins with showing a group of toddlers happily playing with toys in a nursery, accompanied by Music/DianaRoss's "Do You Know Where You're Going To" playing in the background. All seems well until a radio begins delivering harrowing news stories about crimes delivered by sects (including a teenager who had been ''crucified to a wooden fence with metal spikes through his knees and elbows''). As the radio continues, [[MoodWhiplash the room goes dark, and the toddlers begin crying as the toys in the nursery suddenly become ominous and threatening]]. The PIF ends with the tagline "Heal the hate. Free the future." on a white background. |
| 176 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_8v8FPVlL0 Ad Council ran this terrifying anti-hate advert]] in 1992. It starts out by lulling the viewer with "one place where it doesn't matter who your neighbor is (a nursery of newborn babies) before showing actual photos of Nazi and UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan rallies and civil rights protests while an electronic screaming noise is played over and over again, and concluding with a silent shot of a cemetery. This was shown on daytime television where kids were most likely watching. Later broadcasts of this advert don't show the middle part, possibly due to complaints. |
| 177 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zotowQJjjgs One ad]] from UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} focused on social bullying through social media. It features a Japanese schoolgirl posting offensive messages, but after each text, she goes to her bathroom again and again, and we realize why: the posts are appearing as tattoos on her hands and face, and she is attempting to remove them. It only gets worse when towards the end, we see her face covered entirely in the messages. The lesson of this ad: if you post malicious messages, they will never disappear, and you might have to regret it. |
| 178 | * Several channels owned by Creator/ViacomCBS ran [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh4B9RDSaNo this PSA]] in the wake of protests after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_George_Floyd the murder of George Floyd]] in the summer of 2020. [[NothingIsScarier It consists of nothing but nearly 9 minutes of the phrase "I CAN'T BREATHE" fading in and out]] while a person takes a deep breath in the background, plus a message every 30 seconds asking viewers to call on public officials to take action against PoliceBrutality. Even more terrifying? [[FridgeHorror This PSA's almost 9 minute length is the same amount of time that Derek Chauvin had his knee pinned down on Floyd's neck.]] |
| 179 | ** The Viacom-owned Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}, aimed at children, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AH25hbJEtU opted for a considerably less ominous PSA]] in place of the "I Can't Breathe" one, which consists of a text scroll on repeat telling kids that they have the right to be treated equally (the [[https://www.nickalive.net/2017/01/nickelodeons-declaration-of-kids-rights.html Nickelodeon's Declaration of Kids' Rights]], originally written for the grand opening of the Nickelodeon Studios production facilities at Ride/UniversalStudios Orlando in 1990). Nevertheless, it's still jarring to see the peppy ending of ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' suddenly transition to dead silence, and this PSA's length is ''also'' equal to how long Chauvin had pinned down Floyd. The creepier PSA somehow ended up playing on Creator/NickJr, which is a ''preschool channel.'' |
| 180 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui0R668zc9U&t=1s This ad]] from John Grooms features a man performing gymnastics while a disembodied voice claims that [[BuryYourDisabled disabled people are worthless and "pieces of meat" that don't belong in society]]. Already unsettling as it is, but the ending makes it worse when the ad asks you if you think it's from the Third Reich, only for the text to say that it's from the [[WhamLine "The thoughts of a Mensa]] UsefulNotes/LosAngeles [[WhamLine member published in 1995."]] Cut to a close-up of the man's face, and a caption revealing it's British champion gymnast Ronnie Broomhall, who has Downs Syndrome.[[note]]Broomhall is one of dozens of Downs Syndrome athletes trained by Special Olympics gymnastics coach Dave Razzell[[/note]] It definitely does not sugarcoat the ableism that people with disabilities have to deal with. |
| 181 | -->Sadly, ignorance is still the most debilitating disease we face. |
| 182 | [[/folder]] |
| 183 | !! Child Abuse and Exploitation |
| 184 | AbusiveParents can be played [[PlayedForLaughs many]] [[PlayedForDrama ways]] in {{fiction}}, but in RealLife? [[{{Understatement}} Not so much.]] |
| 185 | [[folder:''NSPCC'']] |
| 186 | Britain's leading voice against child abuse, the NSPCC, is responsible for a lot of these. |
| 187 | * An advertisement from 1999, titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6KmBRkKF_4 Can't Look]]". It shows teddy bears in the sort of wallpaper you'd see in a baby's bedroom, a mug with ComicStrip/RupertBear and an Franchise/ActionMan figure, a poster of England football player Alan Shearer, and a Smash Hits magazine featuring the Music/SpiceGirls all covering their eyes, over the sound of [[NothingIsScarier off-screen child abuse]] (there's a man molesting a girl, a father yelling at his son, a boy locked in a closet quietly crying for help, a man showing pedophilic interest in a boy, and a woman yelling a BigShutUp at her crying baby and presumably beating it, due to the sound the baby makes at the end), the message being that [[SeeNoEvilHearNoEvil covering our eyes doesn't stop bad things happening]]. In fact, the ad was so disturbing that it drew 150 complaints, 76 of which were from former victims of child abuse. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3dw6ir4mkE alternate version]] is arguably worse, as the audio in the Spice Girls bit is changed to a girl begging her father to stop. The fact that there's no announcer to accompany the music just makes things worse. |
| 188 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YybCbjnWKg "Cartoon Boy"]] shows an [[RogerRabbitEffect animated boy]] being abused by his live-action father, with AmusingInjuries that are out of keeping with the seriousness with which his father attacks him — including ''[[ManOnFire being set on fire by a lit cigarette]]'' — culminating in the boy being launched down the stairs, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome only to finally be shown as a real child, no longer cartoonishly affected but lying either unconscious or dead at the foot of the stairs]]. "Real children don't bounce back" indeed. |
| 189 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIDuq0PUhx4 One disturbing]] campaign from 2006 was run in the style of a mock FairyTale about a 13-year-old girl who, just like Literature/{{Cinderella}}, was left alone at home while her family went out on the town. The advert ends with a fire starting and said girl being trapped, presumably dying, with no way to escape, all while [[RepurposedPopSong "Everybody Hurts"]] by Music/{{REM}} plays in the background. |
| 190 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65Hn28p9b64 Another one]] began with a man creeping into a girl's bedroom, [[ItMakesSenseInContext only to be trampled by fun runners before he can do anything]], with the message that you can raise money for the NSPCC through fundraising events. The scary part in all this is when the runners' arrival is led by a runner in a HairRaisingHare outfit looming ominously out of the darkness, accompanied by the blaring wail of an air horn. If nothing else, this is what ''prevents'' the girl's abuse, making for a very rare instance of CreepyGood in one of these adverts. |
| 191 | * [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=o9GlKjrARxM This ad]] about victims of abuse being unable to speak out against their abusers is horrific. The puppet girl is especially creepy. |
| 192 | * These three ads are so horrifying, they will make you hug the nearest baby you see. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVqwmt9qc8Y One]] shows a man snapping a pencil in anger as his child cries, and the ad warns us that a baby's arm isn't much stronger. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFZKgEZ55jc Another one]] is worse; it shows a child in the hospital either dead or unconscious, with the horrified doctors and nurses working on him while the narrator outlines his brutal injuries including ''brain bleeding''. However, the child's okay — his eyes are open at the end. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9oL0sGx90g The final ad]] is the worst one of all, and shows us a woman slowly growing annoyed with her wailing infant and then spinning around to shake the child. ("Shaking a baby can cause brain damage.") Although her movements look more like a slap. To make matters worse, [[NothingIsScarier the ad ends]] [[GoryDiscretionShot before we see what happens]]. |
| 193 | -->"William will survive this time, but what’s to stop him from being attacked again?" |
| 194 | * [[http://youtu.be/bcX7G1hWQHs Yet another]] campaign. Unsurprisingly, the ad was pulled due to the masks (used to represent how children cover up sexual abuse) being deemed too [[UnintentionalUncannyValley realistic and distressing for children]]. (The TV one, at least; [[http://osocio.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/nspcc-bathroom-poster-gr.jpg there were]] [[http://osocio.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/nspcc-door-poster-gr.jpg also]] [[http://osocio.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/nspcc-bed-poster-gr.jpg magazine ads]].) |
| 195 | * [[https://youtu.be/dYnLzSUQc6U "The $#*! Kids Say"]] starts out cute, with kids saying strange things. However, as it progresses, the things they say hint at abuse. This includes a little girl shouting at another, and a girl saying "I'm a mistake, it's always my fault". It's an excellent use of FridgeHorror to get the point across. |
| 196 | * [[https://youtu.be/WXDhFl_6m0M Another one]] shows a young girl (named Ellie) placing a doll on her bed, who then says: "My name's Mandy. I can sing and play games. Will you hug me?" and giggles. Ellie then leaves the room upon hearing her presumably abusive mother sternly calling her name downstairs. The doll continues: "You can tell me all your secrets. My best friend Ellie tells me hers. Her mummy comes into her room and punches her..." ''[[BrokenRecord and continues to repeat "and punches her" over and over until the end of the ad]]''. |
| 197 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFvxhkS13Wg The one they made for boys]] is arguably even worse due to the dingy bedroom and the implication that the boy is locked in a cupboard just out of shot. There's also a horrible irony in that the toy robot, despite its mission to “protect Thomas from his daddy”, is just a toy and can't actually help. |
| 198 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b5DJXMeO8g This terrifying one against child pornography]] begins with showing a man on a laptop, with his back facing the camera. He walks away from the laptop upon hearing the doorbell. As the camera zooms in on the laptop, [[JumpScare a child suddenly appears in it, pressing their hands against the screen]] as a ScareChord plays. Guaranteed to make you stay away from black screen for a while, or forever. |
| 199 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJGRmBL9FLQ One ad]] opens with a little girl magically changing her surroundings by saying "Click!" as she heads home from school. It's fun, [[MoodWhiplash up until she actually makes it home]]. At this point, she gets more tense as she sits on her bed, helplessly and uselessly repeating "Click" as someone approaches her room. [[NothingIsScarier That's how it ends.]] |
| 200 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr-SqtskdTE One from 1991]] shows a group of kids playing hide and seek while a music box theme plays in the background. The music suddenly turns from cheery to unsettling as we see a scared child hiding in the kitchen as a narrator explains that hiding isn't a game for abused children. |
| 201 | * [[https://youtu.be/O9mjnJkEZpQ Another one with the same premise and made years later]] starts out innocently with a happy little Romanian girl playing hide and seek with her friends at her birthday party. After they all pick their hiding spots and she finishes her count, ready to find them, it suddenly cuts to ''another'' little girl, only she's hiding in another closet, is dirty, has tears in her eyes, and is so terrified of what's to come that [[BringMyBrownPants she wets herself]]. The ad then says "For an abused child, hide and seek isn't a game." |
| 202 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgWAdmfjFKs This 2000s ad]] begins by introducing us to a kid named Katie, who is sitting on a swing all alone, who doesn't think anyone can stop her abuser from coming into her room at night. We are then introduced to another kid named Alex, who is kicking a ball into a wall and walking around, who doesn't know who can stop the violence that waits for him at home. Then, we're informed that children living with abuse and neglect often feel that no one in the world can help them, all while we see a girl walking around a place with dead-looking trees. We then see a crying baby bawling its eyes out all alone in a dark room while the announcer pleads for us to give two pounds a month. We then see Alex walking around again, which cuts to a girl looking at the camera with sad-looking eyes. The atmosphere is quite creepy and also definitely works as a TearJerker. |
| 203 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAza6T0pwt0&ab_channel=easportsbig899 This ad]] starts off with a little boy walking into his house with ominous music, we cut to him doing his homework on a table, then looking up at someone (possibly his abuser) with a scared-looking expression with a creepy blue filter added to it, accompanied with a ScareChord. We then see a child looking into a bag for something, then looking at the camera with a scared-looking expression with his fingers on his lips, accompanied by the same filter added to it. We then see a sad-looking girl in a dark room sitting on a swing, then looks up at something off-camera. The next scene shows an abusive parent tearing up their son's homework, while the son looks up with a disappointed look on his face. |
| 204 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNeQ1XbgvN4&ab_channel=easportsbig899 This old ad from 1986]] shows school students leaving school. An announcer then explains to us about a neglected child who is all alone with no one to collect him. We then zoom and pan to the boy walking to a tree and standing next to it looking all lonely. The black-and-white filter adds to the gloominess of the PIF. |
| 205 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkXfBWPL4To&ab_channel=easportsbig899 Another one from 1989]] shows a man getting ready for a boxing match, all while a DroneOfDread plays in the background. We then find out that he is actually fighting [[WhamShot a child]]. |
| 206 | * In 2001, the NSPCC released this advert called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRdlpexhHH4 Kids Learn Fast]], and it is every bit as horrifying as you'd imagine it to be; it opens in 1971, with a young boy playing in his bedroom before his abusive father locks him in his closet. We then skip to the present, where the now grown-up boy is screaming verbal abuse at his young daughter; the haunting music playing over the scene does NOT help matters in the SLIGHTEST, and the message is as clear as day: [[TheChainOfHarm children who grow up with abusive parents may one day repeat the same toxic patterns as adults]]. |
| 207 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdrS6I9GQV8&ab_channel=easportsbig899 This one from 1992]] shows still photographs of children set to Chris Rea's "Tell Me There's a Heaven", with a caption underneath giving an excuse for why this particular child has been injured, and another caption showing that the excuse didn't explain the other injuries. Each revelation is more damning than the last; a boy underwent an X-Ray that showed seven unreported fractures, one girl had weal marks on her back, one boy had cigarette burns on his arms, and one girl had been reported by a coroner that she had multiple bruises, internal bleeding, fractured ribs, malnutrition, and dehydration. |
| 208 | ---> '''Tagline:''' There's '''[[YouBastard never]]''' an excuse for abusing children. There's '''no''' excuse for ignoring it. We '''don't''' accept excuses. |
| 209 | * [[https://youtu.be/38fvSk25sJI?list=PLEnx7SG_RcOar9sLuvOQz8Y-9kCdcWIkA&t=389 In this radio ad from 2005]], the girl talks about her two mums and how alike they are: They share the same first name (Sarah) and have long brown hair, and they both like to wear jeans, watch ''Series/CoronationStreet'', and eat pasta. According to the girl, only one of her mums is around most of the time. She plays with her, chooses clothes for her, takes her to school, tells her to tidy her room... and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick sometimes gets angry with her]], leading to this WhamLine: |
| 210 | --> '''Girl:''' That's when my other mummy appears. [[WouldHurtAChild She's the one who hits me]]. |
| 211 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxrWFiCsrY0 This disturbing ad]] features a father abusing his son. [[NothingIsScarier We don't actually see the abuse happen]], but the audio makes it very obvious what is going on. Making things worse, subtitles appear explaining how the neighbors know the child is being abused, but they won't do anything since [[TruthInTelevision most people don't know what to do]]. The final subtitle explains that the NSPCC has a special hotline for these situations. The child telling their father to leave them alone — and the [[HellIsThatNoise sudden screaming from both of them at the end]] — don't help either. |
| 212 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_8Sn4VOEcY This one from 1998]] starts off with an embryo being formed, before eventually focusing on the zoomed-in face of an ''unborn baby''; as this goes on, a couple can be heard arguing in the background ("Why don't you just shut it?", "I don't wanna calm down!", etc). Eventually, the woman in the couple brings up the baby -- the man ''slaps'' her, causing the baby to vibrate, followed by a split-second shot of the woman's face as she screams in pain. Eventually, the baby starts to suck its thumb as the screen fades to black with the woman's crying still being audible. Text fades in, asking the viewer [[WhamLine "how many thousands of children grow up to wish they'd never been born?"]]. |
| 213 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DGd7lZJok4 One rare 1995 ad,]] narrated by the late Creator/AlanRickman, slowly zooms out on a cot in a dark room as he lists all the statistics of child deaths, beatings, and assaults that happen there. The [[NothingIsScarier lack of music]] makes it all the more chilling. |
| 214 | --> '''Alan Rickman:''' It's here where 1 in 10 of all killings take place. There are 1 to 2 deaths every week. In a year, there are over 5,000 beatings, and over 1,700 sexual assaults, including rape and buggery. |
| 215 | * Advertising/ISawYourWilly! [[https://youtu.be/z1n9Jly3CQ8 It's a silly premise]]: A boy takes a picture of his private parts and it spreads across social media. It may turn into NightmareRetardant when a bully messages [[{{Narm}} "ur willy is rubbish!"]], but then gets right back on track and mentions that Alex gets a message from a man he didn't know. The text? "I liked your willy. Can I show you mine?" |
| 216 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-DhI3P7Cs8 This one]] from 2006 starts off fairly normal, with a group of teenagers recording their friend (nicknamed "Skyscraper") rapping to a beat as the cameraman zooms in and out. Then, out of nowhere, the rapper's father breaks in and starts slapping him across the face as his friends run out of the room screaming. |
| 217 | [[/folder]] |
| 218 | [[folder:''Barnardo's'']] |
| 219 | Barnardo's, a British charity that works with vulnerable children, is well known for these. Its greatest hits include: |
| 220 | * A TV and poster campaign showing underage prostitutes with digitally aged faces to show that sexual abuse has stolen their childhood. The posters can be viewed [[https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2003/photography-and-image-manipulation/13217/bed-alleyway-toilet-sofa/ here,]]◊ and you can watch one of the campaign's TV ads [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBmjQS2tQm4 here]] (major UncannyValley warning). The NSPCC later did its own version with adults speaking in children's voices about living with molestation; see one example [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lPwjoOMO1Q here]]. |
| 221 | * A series of posters featuring distance shots of people who have died horribly (through murder, suicide, drug overdose, etc.), with text explaining that they really "died" as children because of abuse or neglect, some of which can be viewed [[https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2002/photography-and-image-manipulation/12239/hanging-shotgun-drown-jumper-prostitute/ here.]]◊ |
| 222 | * A similar poster campaign to the one above shows images of young children in dark, grimy places with text revealing their actual adult age. These include [[https://www.luerzersarchive.com/en/magazine/print-detail/barnardos-13024.html a baby doing heroin,]]◊ [[https://www.luerzersarchive.com/en/magazine/print-detail/barnardos-13028.html a homeless little girl sitting on a dirty blanket,]]◊ a [[https://www.luerzersarchive.com/en/magazine/print-detail/barnardos-13027.html boy sitting with an open bottle of alcohol,]]◊ [[https://www.luerzersarchive.com/en/magazine/print-detail/barnardos-13026.html a boy standing on a building about to jump,]]◊ [[https://www.luerzersarchive.com/en/magazine/print-detail/barnardos-13025.html a boy sitting in a prison bunk bed,]]◊ [[https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2001/photography-and-image-manipulation/11450/robber/ a boy lying on the ground near a shotgun,]]◊ and [[https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2001/press-advertising/11599/prostitute/ a little girl about to get in a shady-looking car.]]◊ |
| 223 | * Images of babies [[{{Squick}} snuggled up with rats and cockroaches]] because they are trapped in substandard housing. |
| 224 | * [[http://adland.tv/content/barnardo-shocking-ads-gets-complaints Print adverts]] (eventually banned for causing "widespread offense") featuring a newborn baby with a bottle of harmful liquid in their mouth, with the slogan, "There are no silver spoons for children born into poverty." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncYOtZaNrRY A TV advert of this campaign also exists]], showing '''a live cockroach crawling out of a newborn infant's mouth.''' |
| 225 | * An [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E1b_s9irUw advert]] that began with a group of men going out to hunt ''"parasites"'' and ''"scum"'' that ''"destroy lives"'', stating that ''"something must be done"''. We're led to believe that they are hunting verminous wildlife, but they instead begin [[WouldHurtAChild shooting at a group of teenagers]], culminating in them screaming ''"'''[[AxCrazy TO HELL WITH THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS!]]'''"''. The advert states that every line of dialogue in the film was a quote about children, made by members of the public on the website of a national newspaper. |
| 226 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcRPhIfwUc8 Children talking about their goals and dreams]] for the future and what really happened to them due to the grim reality of life's uncertainties: |
| 227 | ** Running a sweets shop. Instead, she overdosed on heroin before her 20s. |
| 228 | ** Becoming a ballerina. Instead, she became a prostitute. |
| 229 | ** Growing up to be a firefighter that helps people and puts out fires. Instead, [[FaceHeelTurn he robbed a gas station and killed two people]]. |
| 230 | ** Becoming a Hollywood star. Instead, she froze to death in a doorway (meaning that she grew up to be homeless). |
| 231 | ** Playing football (soccer) for UsefulNotes/{{England}}. Instead, he became an abusive father. |
| 232 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAYLh09JxJE A young man (early 20s or so)]] talks to the camera about how his life is going well — he's a new father, he likes his job, and so forth. But then he states that he still has nightmares, and as the camera moves, every time an object covers him or his face is off-frame, he's a little younger, and his story gets a little worse. Eventually, he's a very young boy, covered in bruises, whimpering about how he's scared. The message is a good one ([[EarnYourHappyEnding a bad beginning does NOT have to lead to a bad ending]]), but the delivery stings. |
| 233 | [[/folder]] |
| 234 | [[folder:''UNICEF'']] |
| 235 | [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICEF UNICEF]] (short for UsefulNotes/UnitedNations Children's Fund) cannot afford to hold back in their eternal battle against all that is HarmfulToMinors: |
| 236 | * [[https://youtu.be/mUQxBbK05-g One PSA]] for Unicef has a young boy working on what appears to be an innocent art project. Upon finishing, he attaches each piece of cardboard to his body and, hearing his door open, crouches down to form a realistic-looking dresser drawer that he uses to hide from his abusive father. Upon the father coming into his son's room, he ogles it for a long time and then leaves, giving us the implication that just because it worked that time, [[FridgeHorror doesn't mean that it'll work the next]]… |
| 237 | * Unicef's Advertising/CartoonsOnChildrensRights made by various different MediaNotes/{{animation companies}} about the various rights that children should have includes some frightening entries (many of which use MoodWhiplash to make their point). |
| 238 | ** Italian television company Creator/{{RAI}} came out with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5gisdznbZ0 this one]], which is about child labor. A young boy and girl are shown playing soccer when they accidentally kick the ball into a window. The ball gets thrown back out, and we zoom into the building to see a young boy in a sweatshop making hundreds of soccer balls. The shot of tons of children playing with balls at the end clearly shows that the kid won't be getting any sort of break for a long time now. The (arguably [[SoundtrackDissonance way too happy]]) music doesn't help. |
| 239 | ** Creator/HannaBarbera subsidiary Creator/FilCartoons made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImOpL-SpSiQ one about the protection of children during war]]. It shows a boy thinking of him and his friends going to school and doing fun activities such as fishing and breaking pinatas, only for the music to become sadder as we zoom out from the boy's eye (the SingleTear he sheds as the [[ArtShift art shifts to a more realistic style]] only helps) and show that in reality [[ChildSoldiers the kids are all soldiers]], implying that those happy times were all in his imagination, or even memories. |
| 240 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxuALdNgELY Fred Wolf's contribution]] shows a young boy with a plush dog '''''seeing a man get shot in his front yard.''''' When he goes to sleep, he and his dog cower under the covers as his toys scatter out of his toy box and a monstrous toy robot kills them all before making [[SlasherSmile a manic grin]]. Fortunately, it was AllJustADream and the young boy goes outside without fear... but not before [[EmpathyDollShot a final shot of his plush dog falling to the ground]] with gunshot noises. [[note]]However, knowing Fred's involvement in ''WesternAnimation/TheSnowman'' and ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'', it isn't that off the studio's limits.[[/note]] |
| 241 | ** Danish studio Creator/AFilm [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDISu9E4xxA decided to show us]] a toddler hugging his doll. We cut to a silhouette of a hand dropping coins that turn into screaming children before the same hand catches them again. We cut back to the boy, who is then dragged away by an unseen adult (presumably the same person as before) and [[EmpathyDollShot drops his doll]], implying that he just got kidnapped. It doesn't help that the lullaby-like music [[SoundtrackDissonance barely changes]].[[note]]Then again, this type of NightmareFuel is to be expected from one of the studios behind ''WesternAnimation/{{Felidae}}''.[[/note]] |
| 242 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=850ZNEkrpCI The entry from German animation studio Hahn Film AG]][[note]]The studio behind ''WesternAnimation/AsterixConquersAmerica'' and ''WesternAnimation/SimsalaGrimm''[[/note]] starts off with a young girl in her pajamas sitting near her father reading a newspaper in an armchair as she's putting ribbons on her teddy bear. Her mother gives them both goodbye kisses and pretty much immediately, things get unsettling. She tries to walk off, [[EmpathyDollShot only for her father to slowly trod on her teddy bear]], and the last shot is [[PaedoHunt his shadow looming over the poor girl as she looks up at him in horror]]. |
| 243 | ** Creator/WangFilmProductions [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYjqtXCYid8 contributed with a short]] that starts off with a framed picture of two parents and their son, but a bullet passes through it, it droops down, and the parents [[ShadowDiscretionShot in silhouettes]] start yelling at each other with various weapons appearing to represent the tension, as a green helmet below the picture walks away, before opening a door, showing us the child in the image was hiding in it. Obviously unhappy with his parents' [[ParentalNeglect neglect]], he does a ThousandYardStare just as a fumming NightmareFace slowly emerges on him and a ScareChord starts playing, implying that the circumstances [[StartOfDarkness are going to make him just as violent]]. |
| 244 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWKQOuXeLwo Matinee Entertainment's cartoon]] starts out with {{Delivery Stork}}s dropping babies on a city, but as the babies fall, they suddenly look up in horror to see some planes with {{Nightmare Face}}s drop nukes with equally creepy expressions that carpet bomb the city (with shots of a church, school, and hospital shown before they are blown up). The ad ends with the babies landing on the smoking ruins of the city, looking frightened and hopeless. |
| 245 | ** '''''[[Creator/CookieJarEntertainment Cinar]]'''''[[note]]the company behind ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Caillou}}'', and ''Series/{{Zoboomafoo}}'', for those who don't know[[/note]], '''''of all companies''''', created what was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSPnXY2p0lM arguably the worst one of the bunch]]. We see a girl and her dog jumping around in the hills and catching butterflies. Then they jump into a land mine. Even worse is that although you can't see them when the mine blows up, the lullaby-esque music switches to a DroneOfDread, and the PSA cuts to realistic drawings of children who are either bandaged or have prosthetic limbs (obviously injured by landmines), and all look fearful. Needless to say, if you replace this PSA's NightmareFuel with a more CrossesTheLineTwice tone, it would '''absolutely''' work as a ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' parody. |
| 246 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WlClCnCpgo This one from Big Star]][[note]]The studio behind ''WesternAnimation/OggyAndTheCockroaches''[[/note]] focuses on child abduction, where a little girl plays with her ball while her mother is watching her. When she goes farther from her mother, the music changes and a pair of two dark hands are trying to grab her. It reveals that the hands belong to an old, creepy man. His face becomes bigger, but a cage locks him up with a hard sound. |
| 247 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEmaZ6f4UkM In this video]] about children in warzones, a little girl is trying to make a sandcastle but doesn't succeed because of the tanks. After that, it shows two soldiers playing chess with tanks, while the little girl (on the chessboard) is looking around her. The dramatic piano music doesn't help. |
| 248 | ** [[https://youtu.be/8yU_xK7mgrg One of the very few stop-motion animation cartoons]] accompanied by creepy music shows a prison with various strange cellmates. The last one is a little boy, playing with his toy and a sad expression on his face. |
| 249 | ** [[https://youtu.be/x8jkGz4-Nnw This entry from BRB Internacional]] has a toddler who is asleep in his bed, when he begins having a disturbing nightmare about babies being abducted by a judge and sent to random people. One of these babies happens to be him, and he is whisked off. At that moment, the kid wakes up bawling. Unlike the previous examples, this one has a SurprisinglyHappyEnding, as his mother comes in to comfort him. |
| 250 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeF5ZSBlFgc This horrifying UNICEF ad]] uses the titles of several computer files and images to tell the story of Daniel, a successful 49-year-old businessman and father. Daniel's family thinks he's a Workaholic who always gets home late, but he is secretly molesting underprivileged children in an apartment he owns downtown. When [[PedoHunt Daniel]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil is done]], "[[InnocenceLost the child gets some money that won't buy his childhood back]]". The text-to-speech voice and suspenseful music certainly don't help. |
| 251 | ** [[https://youtu.be/JsBLcXiSzkA?feature=shared&t=62 Another one]] involves the story of Benjamin, a single fashion photographer who comes across a website that shares child pornography, which ends up giving him the idea to drug a 12-year-old girl named Angela with dreams of becoming a model via Flunitrazepam. The last words being ''"this little angel will know [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil hell]]".'' A disturbing detail is that under the "{{hell}}." folder is ''a bunch of image files with the girl's name on them''. |
| 252 | * [[https://youtu.be/VqxRIn2FD5o?t=2045 This British public information film]] about the Third World Debt features a man sitting down in a dark room eating jelly babies, demonstrating that, according to UNICEF, the Third World Debt is "killing half a million little babies every year", with one being "consumed" every minute. The chilling music does not help at all. On top of all this, it was given a U certificate. |
| 253 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9PicdIGat4&ab_channel=easportsbig899 A 15-rated cinema ad from the UK in 1990]] which tells us that nobody seems to care if kids in UsefulNotes/{{Africa}} starve or die and all they talk about is extra VAT on biscuits. The images of suffering children and a woman putting down a corpse at the end both seal the whole deal. The dead silence at the end doesn't help. |
| 254 | --> '''Narrator:''' What your MP isn't talking about is that five million children die in the third world every year. |
| 255 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz9b1hWKLUY This disturbing ad about child hunger]] made in UsefulNotes/{{Norway}} for Unicef seems to take a page from the landmine ad mentioned in the "War" section. We're treated to images of starving children [[DudeNotFunny while a laugh track plays in the background.]] Seeing images of dying children is horrifying enough, but said LaughTrack definitely pushes it over the edge. The PSA ends with a simple question: [[ArmorPiercingQuestion "What's worse? Laughter or Indifference?"]] It is definitely one of UNICEF's scariest [=PSAs=]. |
| 256 | * [[https://youtu.be/wfbi3CxE3Lw One UNICEF public service announcement]] takes place at a wedding, where all of the preparations are being made before the ceremony, and at one point we see the bride's and the groom's shoes sitting next to one another. What looks like a fairytale wedding between a man and a petite woman (complete with a sign that says "She belongs to me") is in actuality [[OldManMarryingAChild a young girl unwillingly being married off to a grown man]] in an anti-child bride advertisement. |
| 257 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bftmZlpAkPg The Unicef PSA where]] Franchise/TheSmurfs' [[SugarApocalypse village gets bombed]]. Talk about a childhood killer, especially when one learns Creator/{{Peyo}}'s family approved the PSA. Unicef's Belgian arm only allowed the ad to air late at night (9 PM in that country) to avoid traumatizing children. That didn't stop [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/allthetropes/images/0/0f/UnicefSmurfs.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20201221164652 the print ad version]] from appearing on numerous magazines in UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}. |
| 258 | * [[https://youtu.be/9pJwJvqgjiI?t=242 This spot]] from Unicef UsefulNotes/{{China}} Shows an adorable 8-year-old named Li Gong reading a report on how she wants to be a teacher when she grows up... to a classroom that's abandoned and vacant save for a mangy dog rooting through the trash. |
| 259 | -->Only if she was given the chance... |
| 260 | [[/folder]] |
| 261 | [[folder:''[=ChildLine=]'']] |
| 262 | UK counselling service [=ChildLine=] often made a few hard-hitting campaigns that both linger between being scary and [[TearJerker saddening]], and over the past few decades, they've explored a variety of scenarios that are just too distressful to watch. |
| 263 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJeLaduxE6s&ab_channel=easportsbig899 This 2000s ChildLine ad]] starts off with a girl coming back from school and walking into her bedroom and putting her drawer in front of her door so her parents can't come in. While all this is happening, we're told that when you've been abused, told to stay quiet "or else", frightened that nobody will believe you, your mother getting blamed, or getting caught telling, but even more scared of what might happen if you don't "when the secret has never passed your lips before", it takes a lot of courage to call [=ChildLine=]. We then see the nervous girl calling the service, and waiting for them to pick up. We're then informed that the service can only answer half of the calls, yet three pounds is all it takes to answer a child's cry for help. The heartbeat in the background before she waits for them to pick up the phone adds to the creepiness, and to make matters worse, the phone doesn't answer before the ad ends, leaving the child's fate unknown. |
| 264 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHIYGIueM6o&ab_channel=easportsbig899 Another ad]] begins with a scared-looking child walking over to a public phone box and calling the service at nighttime. As soon as the girl says "Hello?", the phone hangs up at the point the narrator says that [=ChildLine=] needs more money, and that's all there is to it. |
| 265 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgafSO14Qs4&ab_channel=easportsbig899 A disturbing spot]] presents us with a series of inner thoughts from several members of the public, all of them involving how they want children to be abused, raped, and tortured. It is revealed at the end that [[spoiler:these people were all [=ChildLine=] counselors, and only a third of children calling them get help]]. |
| 266 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsUu9v2RaHM&ab_channel=TheHallofAdvertising This one]] shows children calling [=ChildLine=] from within the building with creepy visuals added. One girl talks about her abusive drunk mother, a boy mentions that he got punched in the face by some bullies who threatened to hurt his sister next, and another girl (with a bleeding nose) says that her father isn't her real dad and that he always hits her. We then pan to another girl, who is shown to be ''dead'' as a tagline shows that only 1 in 5 calls to [=ChildLine=] can be answered by a counselor. |
| 267 | [[/folder]] |
| 268 | [[folder:Miscellaneous -- Parental Abuse and Neglect]] |
| 269 | * The Irish equivalent of their neighbors' NSPCC, the ISPCC, produced [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKm9u8kr-ok this PSA]] that quickly becomes very graphic. In it, a young boy bravely recites his intentions to become an activist when he grows up, all the while suffering increasingly brutal abuse at the hands of his dad, culminating in the father attempting to crush the boy's ribcage beneath his foot. |
| 270 | -->I can't wait until I grow up, until I have the right to be happy, to be kept safe, to be kept warm. To feel loved. To be listened to, to be heard. To never ever ever ever cower, or tremble, or shake, or to have my innocence punched or kicked or screamed away. I'll fight for the rights of children like me, who don't have a childhood. I can't wait until I grow up. |
| 271 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noAPgRfWegk An ad]] for UsefulNotes/{{France}}'s Enfance et partage is very unsettling. It starts out normal, with two men and a woman eating lunch. Then, all of a sudden, the woman slaps one of the men, and the other man drags him away and starts brutally beating him up with a belt. The worst part is the end where it ends with the {{tagline}} "Ceci est une reconstitution. [[WhamLine Dans la realite, la victime a six ans.]]"[[note]] This is a dramatization. In reality, the victim is six years old. [[/note]] |
| 272 | * Many years ago, there was a PSA about child abuse that showed a jack-in-the-box playing a lullaby tune, before the payload sprang forth — an archaic baby doll with a porcelain head — to the sound of a baby crying. Then, out of nowhere, a baseball bat swings around and smashes the doll's head. And it played in the middle of a block of daytime cartoons. |
| 273 | * This [[https://youtu.be/Yxd189deAB4?si=YBaT5hhjXbfr236a child sexual abuse PSA]] in UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}} that showed a little girl in a room playing with makeup, expressionlessly. A man appeared out of nowhere, helping her put on makeup, and [[NothingIsScarier he took her to somewhere else]]. To make matters worse, it was always played before ''Series/BarneyAndFriends''. |
| 274 | * Also from Mexico, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gajRmSmbghM a 2003 PSA]] from DIF Nuevo Leon only shows a dark shot of a barrel while we hear a baby crying. It fades out to the phrase "No tires una vida a la basura." (Don't throw a life to the trash can.) on a black screen as the crying gets louder. Short, but to the point. |
| 275 | * The US organization Ad Council released this PSA, titled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybOCa7xnEZU "Word Pictures"]]. The advert shows various insults written in crayon on a white background, while various adult voiceovers shout the abuses (including "I hate you!"). At the end, drawings of crying children (also in crayon) appear along with the Ad Council logo. |
| 276 | * There was a [[https://youtu.be/dGAtXVrlFhA Public Service Announcement]] in UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} that showed a red liquid dripping onto the floor from a table. The camera then panned up to show that it was coming from a spilled glass of milk, with the liquid turning from red to white, with a caption about a toddler whose abusive parents [[DisproportionateRetribution beat him up and suffered a brain hemorrhage for spilling his milk]]. All while you can hear a child joyfully saying something that cuts out as soon as it shows the blood, and you can hear [[HellIsThatNoise a child creepily whispering over the tagline]]. |
| 277 | * From the NCPCA, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGZOYiMqPGg "Children believe what they hear…"]] One of the earliest promos for ''verbal'' child abuse. |
| 278 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbkgj2YDNlU There's a brief ad]] that was shown before movies in the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates that features a little girl treating her doll the way her mother treats her. Sadly, the mother hasn't set a good example, since the little girl is [[TroubledToybreaker violently shaking the doll and yelling at it]]. |
| 279 | -->'''Girl:''' There, there. Stop crying. ''[angrily]'' I said, stop crying. ''[raising her voice]'' Stop, I said, or I'll give you something to cry about! Look at you! You're filthy! ''[throws her doll in the closet and slams the door]'' Stay in there until I get back! |
| 280 | * The fact that many abusers can appear to be loving parents is the horror [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnss9xJpyYo in this one]]. Look at the little girl's face. [[https://www.duality.tv/portfolio/childhelp-usa-coffee-shop/ The long version]] has her looking back through the window. This is from Childhelp. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4gOHViAtYs They also did this one]] with the same theme. |
| 281 | * The Nobody's Children Foundation in UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} made [[http://adweek.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341c51c053ef01156fba1bef970c-pi these]] [[http://adweek.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341c51c053ef011570af5d1b970b-pi two]] macabre print ads. Claiming that "you can lose more than your patience", they depict physically abused children with parts of their faces and limbs broken off as if they were porcelain dolls. BodyHorror at its finest. It's hard to say which one is worse: the crying toddler or the little girl laying limp at the table with a ThousandYardStare. |
| 282 | * There is a series of three ads by Prevent Child Abuse Utah that feature the disembodied voices of children over colorless environments that briefly give details of evidence that suggest abuse, then pleading with the viewer not to "[[BystanderSyndrome look the other way]]", all while terrifyingly eerie music plays in the background. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXTMRNAfWmY See]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kWlnFbx_Cg for]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJGelnpWH8Y yourself]]. |
| 283 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbOU4oGTgdw&ab_channel=thenightsshield A PSA from The Night's Shield children's shelter in Illinois]] showed a young brother and sister duo pretending to be a knight and a princess, respectfully. All is well until their drunken father comes charging up the stairs towards the room, but instead of a normal human shadow, there is the image of a dragon where it should be on the wall. Thankfully, the children are rescued by children's services before the father/"dragon" could do anything to them, but still... |
| 284 | * This rare [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIcp3lwkP8Q spot]] features a creepy engraved teddy bear with a baby crying in the background. To demonstrate why shaking a baby can be fatal, the bear shakes rapidly and the baby's crying gets louder. Once the image becomes completely blurry, we zoom out to reveal the teddy bear is on a baby's tombstone. That right there is unsettling. |
| 285 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZtU08UYiGc This 1988 British cinema ad]] from the Derbyshire County Council's Fostering Service, which has a boy's foster mother dropping cutlery and apologizing, and his foster dad who's impressed with the drawing of a bike he was given, with dubbed audio of his biological parents verbally abusing him ("Now look what you've made me do, you little brat!" "GetOut Can't you see I'm busy? ''GO! GET OUT!''"), with an echo effect (a la Film/{{Poltergeist|1982}}) on the audio, giving the implication of flashbacks. We then see the family having soup together, with the boy angrily pushing his bowl away, still suffering from flashbacks. The foster parents encourage him to try some while the traumatized boy looks at both of his foster parents. |
| 286 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50T0dxHZsjU&ab_channel=Prodos2000 This one from Women's Refuge in New Zealand]] features a woman in a playhouse. We see her invite "daddy" inside to try the chocolate cake that she made. She gets ready to cut the cake but accidentally knocks over some cups. The man is slightly infuriated at the situation, with the woman saying "Daddy's playing some silly games, isn't he?", and then he suddenly explodes into anger and grabs her, shouting "'''PICK IT UP!'''" as she screams before responding with a quiet and scared "Okay". |
| 287 | -->''Last year we helped over 10,000 children. We're not just a Women's Refuge.'' |
| 288 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z1cCEo5qHk Two 2001 ads from the Japanese Ad Council]] discussed irresponsible parents, as they each show unsettling shots of disorder (the first is a messed-up kitchen, the second has toys lying around the room), with eerie silence (though some baby music can be briefly heard in the first one), coupled with distressing scenes of babies crying for their parents. Bad enough, but it's to be expected from ads like this. When we get to the end of both ads, there are ''very'' unnerving shots of both mother (first ad) and father (second ad) wearing pacifiers, implying that their irresponsibility made them put themselves before their children. Never has the term ManChild taken such a literal and creepy direction. |
| 289 | --> ''"We find too many 'baby moms/dads' around us. Love your own baby before you baby yourself. Our children's future starts now."'' |
| 290 | * [[https://youtu.be/DKdwkRNdGrs This disturbing Australian PSA]] demonstrates how fragile a baby's brain is by putting an egg into the empty head of a baby doll, then giving the tiniest little shake -- when the doll's head is taken back off, the broken egg falls out from the baby's head onto a sheet. On paper, it doesn't sound like much, but the frank voiceover talking about how a baby's head is so fragile that even shaking one once can cause serious brain damage, as well as the distressing sounds of a baby crying, make it rather unsettling in execution. |
| 291 | * Prevent Child Abuse America gave us [[https://youtu.be/ryGETBCexaY?t=573 a trio of ads]] showing a close-up of innocuous household locations (the closet, stovetop, and bathtub) whilst explaining that to you, it's just another part of the daily routine... but to someone else, it's a means of doling out a ''very ugly'' punishment. |
| 292 | * [[https://youtu.be/Cq6OQxZcbjQ This horrifying Peruvian PSA]] features a man simply just eating chicken while we hear a man abusing his child offscreen; the bystander goes to grab his phone, seemingly to call the police or child protective services, but it turns out that he's only calling to ''complain about the quality of his chicken.'' |
| 293 | [[/folder]] |
| 294 | [[folder:Miscellaneous -- Sexual Abuse]] |
| 295 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRbn72gu_NQ A 2007 child sexual abuse awareness PSA called "Monsters"]] plays upon the common childhood theme of monsters hiding under the bed and in the closet. As said situations play out -- red eyes from under the bed and tentacles from the closet -- and those monsters are proven to be imaginary, the voice-over narrator explains, "It's very easy to hide from monsters under the bed... and in the closet." But the boy (presumably named Dallas) lies wide awake, panting nervously and fearfully as the narrator continues about the real monsters. Cue the door opening and a young man, ominously covered in shadows -- his exact relationship with the boy is not explained -- enters the room. The scene cuts to the window as text explains to viewers that in most cases, child sexual abuse victims know their abusers (who hence are the real "monsters") before the {{tagline}} "It's time to stop hiding." And if that's not enough, the PSA is also topped off with a dark atmosphere, [[HellIsThatNoise disturbing music, and creepy children's laughter in the background]], just to add to the scariness factor. The fact that it's a student project yet ''just'' as effective as a real PSA would be is impressive. |
| 296 | * By all rights, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwZET_O2m5s this ad]] should be complete and utter {{narm}}. While the subject matter is appropriately horrific — that sexually abused children who don't get help have to live with their trauma for the rest of their lives — the visual metaphor used to represent said trauma can really only be described as an elongated, vaguely phallic mass of hairy flesh (in other words, a giant penis tentacle). On paper, that sounds simply too vulgar to be taken seriously. In practice, however, it's [[NauseaFuel one of the most revolting things you will ever see]]. Especially as it haunts her [[CradleToGraveCharacter all throughout her life, well into old age]], and finally slithers out of her '''casket'''. |
| 297 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5RazFQq6k This 2009 PSA]] from UsefulNotes/{{Italy}}'s Casa do Menor has a similarly harrowing metaphor for the burden of sexual abuse -- namely, a young boy lugging around and caring for a lifeless replica of his own body. Also a TearJerker. |
| 298 | * An UsefulNotes/{{India}}n [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO4j67vszD0 PSA for the Prayas Foundation]] is very simple and unsettling. A cursor slowly moves over a still image of a smiling girl. It starts off innocent enough, but [[PaedoHunt the cursor]] moves down to the girl's chest and crotch areas. This goes on for a while before it fades to black with the tagline "Thankfully, she did not feel a thing. ''But millions of children are not as fortunate''." |
| 299 | ** UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4NpNrPizOk made their own version]] which is even more horrifying. In this one, when the cursor moves over the picture of the kid, the sound of [[PaedoHunt a man]] getting off to it is heard in the background. It's bound to push all the wrong buttons. |
| 300 | * [[https://www.adsoftheworld.com/campaigns/hands-b84f2479-77cf-417c-b324-a66e8d3d4332 One creepy print ad]] from Casa de Menor in UsefulNotes/{{Spain}} featured a young girl standing alone in a room naked, with several disembodied hands covering her body in a way that resembles a dress, implying that she had been molested. There was a [[https://10057702fash.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/child-abuse-3.jpg similar ad]] from another company that featured a teenage girl, also in a hand-dress. |
| 301 | * A horrifying radio ad for the German child abuse charity Hansel and Gretel Foundation begins with the ostensibly wholesome sound of a little girl laughing hysterically before the narrator tells the listener that if they can recognize that the girl is actually having an orgasm, the charity will find them and put them in jail, and if they don't, they should donate money to help out. There's a link [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI5gFfAXGYU here]], but [[ParanoiaFuel you'll probably feel like you'll end up on a list just for having heard it]]. |
| 302 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnZ0QgVi_LE This horrifying South African PSA]] has a man, implied to be HIV-positive, ''[[ParentalIncest raping his daughter]]'' off-screen while a {{mammy}} listens via a baby monitor. The fact that she can only stand there and listen in utter horror as the child's cheerful greeting turns into desperate pleas for mercy, culminating in a RapidFireNo that goes unheeded, makes the whole thing ten times worse. The icing on the cake is the {{tagline}} "If you won't stop him from raping her, who will?" when the whole point of the PSA shows a woman helpless to stop a girl from being raped. |
| 303 | ** This becomes even worse if you know about the UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}n superstition that [[https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Virgin_cleansing_myth having sex with a virgin can somehow cure AIDS]]. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Yes, this is something that people actually believe]]. Anyone who is actually educated about AIDS would know that this is ''completely ineffective and counterproductive'', accomplishing nothing but spreading the virus (on top of the inherent horrors of ''raping babies''), yet some people in UsefulNotes/{{Africa}} buy into this garbage and carry out these despicable deeds out of desperation and not knowing any better. |
| 304 | * This PSA for the organization ''Child Cry'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU-I3PmP3AY a dark house at night, that appears]], at first, to be an implied evening of passion between lovers. There's a soundtrack of sensual funk music as we see the trail of clothes leading up to the bedroom. But then the ''true'' stomach-churning nature of what is ''really'' going on is revealed when the last things we see are a tiny sneaker, [[SweetSheep a little stuffed lamb plushie]], and worst of all, ''a small child's tiny pink panties''. For extra {{squick}}; during the lead-up, you can faintly hear a Creator/MichaelClarkeDuncan-esque [[ScaryBlackMan voice]] mutter in a very deep, sleazy, "porny" voice, "...mah baby girl... I will feel yo body...". |
| 305 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfzW-iaMyCQ This horrifying Portuguese PSA]] starts off with a man walking into an eerily lit basement while we hear some creepy music, accompanied by creaking noises coming from the ceiling light. We also see some photos and some ''really freaky'' looking dolls. We then see the man taking off his pants and opening a drawer to get some panties as he starts breathing more heavily. He starts ''sniffing them'' and then decides to put them on his foot as he rips them. The camerawork in this PSA just adds to the horror. We hear a stern narrator imploring us to break the silence and speak out for children. |
| 306 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXDWgY-yCUY One disturbing PSA from the Philippines]] from 1997 features a doll being held by a human hand in a dark atmosphere. As the hand grips the doll tight, the doll's cheerful expression turns into one that can be described as pure horror, with matching voices of pain, and is later dropped into a pile of other beaten-up dolls. What makes the so-called "Ripped Doll" PSA so creepy, and especially infamous among Filipino PSA enthusiasts, is not just its overt visual representation of child abuse, but also the usage of a creepy font to nail down the message. The disturbing nature of this PSA in particular is often considered why it was lost following its removal on Website/YouTube until recently. The kicker? It was shown during ''National Children's Month'', which is in October there. |
| 307 | --> '''Narrator:''' Listen to the children. They cry from cruelty, being hurt, exploited, and asking for help. Stop child abuse. Their safety is in your hands. |
| 308 | * Also from the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}, some of the [=PSAs=] from the child abuse hotline Bantay Bata 163 can be really scary even to those who saw it as kids in the 90's. Most of it was about the evils of child abuse, child prostitution, and the like. Even overlaps with [=PSAs=] regarding keeping them away from AIDS, [[https://youtu.be/vo49SVkhTHM one of them]] being done with chalk drawings for an 11-year-old named Elsa, and how she was being abused and prostituted to the point that she ends up shouting enough... and then it just goes back to the chalk drawing of just the girl, with the caption "ELSA... 11 YEARS OLD" while she introduces herself again that sounds like she's on the verge of crying. The girl's tone of her voice doesn't help. This PSA will make you never see the name [[Franchise/{{Frozen}} Elsa]] the same way again. Have fun getting that nightmare off your head. |
| 309 | --> '''"Elsa":''' My name is Elsa. My step-uncle was the first one who abused me. The next one is the owner of the house. They had pimped me, then taken my pictures. There was a foreigner. I had many customers, the last one probably gave me AIDS. I don't want to do it anymore... '''''I don't want to do it anymore!''''' |
| 310 | ** Another shows children playing street games, but suddenly cuts to a bad situation, with the narrator saying that they can't play because they end up being prostituted. One girl ends up having money thrown at her feet with older patrons jeering at her. Another has a boy with nowhere to run. The last girl's innocence is about to go away because an old man has her in his hands, with the last one zooming to her eyes, full of tears. The last one's cries in the background don't help it being unsettling. |
| 311 | --> '''Narrator:''' Stop child prostitution. Keep children away from AIDS. Report child abuse cases to Bantay Bata 163. [[note]] This is also the end narration for the aforementioned Elsa [=PSA.=] [[/note]] |
| 312 | * [[RuleOfThree Also from the Philippines]], albeit decades later, is the [[https://youtu.be/uDYkwnIFQBA "Human. Hindi Laruan"]] (Human. Not a toy) PSA where the scene starts off with a little girl being happy that she was given lots of nice things and being groomed by her mom... only for the next scene to see she's being pimped online in what looks like a stream... of the same girl but in a [[NothingIsScarier really bad scenario.]] Her last call of "Mommy!" didn't help matters. It was one of two [=PSAs=] shown in celebration of World Day Against Trafficking in 2019. |
| 313 | --> '''Narrator:''' Report online sexualization of children. Because a child is not a plaything. |
| 314 | * [[https://youtu.be/vgXBZn2DKGA This shocking NSFW Dutch PSA]] starts off with a bunch of children playing with dildos and vibrators, and describing their thoughts on them. After about thirty or so seconds of this, we suddenly SmashCut to a black screen with text that says "Innocent imagination for these girls", explaining that their minds can't comprehend the purpose of them; after a few more seconds of a girl playing with a vibrator, we get another SmashCut, this time saying "Horrible reality for millions of others", before we cut to '''''seemingly real footage of a girl, who has clearly been sexually abused, being trafficked to a customer'''''. Understandably, this PSA garnered ''instant'' controversy from news outlets, with [[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4488972/Is-shocking-advert-EVER.html one]] even describing it as being the "most shocking advert ever". |
| 315 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW4HzUjiJpo This disturbing French PSA]] from ECPAT against online child pornography features a group of older men kidnapping and taking sexual photos of young girls in a third-world country. The creepy part is the fact that all the men's faces are covered with [[UncannyValley unnervingly realistic masks that resemble a white man's face.]] The ad ends with a man viewing the photographs of the girls on his laptop, and when he turns to the camera, [[WhamShot it is revealed that the masks were of his face all along.]] The message is that viewers of child pornography are responsible for all the crimes connected with the exploitation of minors and that viewing such images is punishable by prison in your country. |
| 316 | * [[https://youtu.be/fOO1rwRCj9g This upsetting Canadian PSA]] starts off fairly innocently, discussing the things that a little girl named Leah lost throughout her life -- her blanket when she was two years old, her dog at four years old, and one of her teeth at six years old, all the while soft piano music plays in the background. MoodWhiplash quickly follows as we're treated to a shot of the door to a room closing as the music turns unbelievably sinister, while we're told that when Leah was seven years old, [[InnocenceLost she lost her ''childhood.'']] The music then shifts to a rather sad acoustic piece, as we see the logo of the company (the Marie-Vincent Foundation) on a nightlight. |
| 317 | --> "It shouldn't hurt to be a child." |
| 318 | * UsefulNotes/{{Malaysia}}'s [[https://youtu.be/yJpUU-1vjqI?t=743 "Stop Nursery Crimes"]] campaign will leave you feeling sick to your stomach -- It consists of pedophiles getting some one-on-one time with the apples of their eyes, singing a ''very thinly-veiled'' IronicNurseryRhyme about their feelings for them, who remain none-the-wiser to intent behind them -- the message being that if you don't teach them about sexual abuse, '''someone else will.''' |
| 319 | * [[https://youtu.be/0fTuvdToYhU?feature=shared&t=21 "Joyeux Noel"]]: This French PSA from the International Association for Victims of Incest about incestual child sexual abuse entails a young boy who appears to simply be taking on a precocious "[[TheScrooge bah humbug]]" attitude, however, as the PSA goes on, the boy becomes increasingly more dramatic in his displays of disliking Christmas. However, upon the doorbell ringing, we see the boy, dressed up, appearing terrified as [[PaedoHunt someone bangs on the door knocker obnoxiously]]. We then see, in French, the words, "Not every child is looking forward to Christmas." Then, we are treated to a smash cut that reads, [[WhamLine "75% of child sexual abuse in France is committed by a family member,"]] and then it cuts to the logo for AIVI. However, after this, in the English version, we then have one final fade to the words: "We'll be doing another campaign for Father's Day." |
| 320 | [[/folder]] |
| 321 | !! Domestic Abuse |
| 322 | Children might be the most vulnerable to UsefulNotes/{{Abuse}} in its many forms, but they're far from the only victims. |
| 323 | [[folder:Domestic Abuse and Personal Concerns]] |
| 324 | * [[https://youtu.be/jOrGsB4qG_w "Children See, Children Do"]]: The commercial starts off cute enough, with a kid mimicking her parent in their daily commute, up until you see she's smoking a cigarette just like her mum. Then it starts getting weird: some of it is unintentionally fun, such as a kid mimicking her mum while she's screaming at another driver and giving the bird, or the aforementioned payphone users start getting frustrated at the payphones, but most of it is pretty jarring, especially near the end when a kid is ready to punch his mum out alongside his abusive father. |
| 325 | * These two American [=PSAs=] for the Family Violence Prevention Fund. In both ads, the creepiness stems from the fact that [[NothingIsScarier we only hear the abuse]]. The witnesses are either powerless to stop it, or simply [[BystanderSyndrome don't care]]. |
| 326 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mthaiNJIcY&ab_channel=rocketraccoon19 "Stairs".]] A boy sits on the stairs watching his father verbally abuse his mother. The situation quickly escalates when the father repeatedly hits the mother after he tries to force her [[StayInTheKitchen into the kitchen]] ("''DO YOU WANNA SEE WHAT HURTS?! '''''THAT’S''''' WHAT HURTS!!''"), and it's all because [[DisproportionateRetribution she ordered a pizza instead of making dinner]]. Their child does nothing but flinch and look at the commotion. It fades to black with the message "Children have to sit by and watch. What’s your excuse?" It doesn’t help that a creepy ambient sound plays as soon as the husband starts to scream. |
| 327 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvvsohmOUwY "Neighbors".]] Made worse by the fact you can hear the woman blatantly screaming "I can't get up!" and the husband keeps taunting her. And then there's the fact the neighbors in the title just shrug it off and go to bed. "It is your business", indeed. |
| 328 | * In the early 21st century, Canadian broadcasters began running a series of [=PSAs=] (from the Calgary-based domestic abuse action group Homefront). |
| 329 | ** One is aptly titled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ2a2NKtJrU "She Spilled My Coffee!"]] in which a family is sitting in a restaurant. The father is served coffee by a young waitress, but she accidentally spills a little bit of it on the plate. She apologizes before the father [[DisproportionateRetribution curses at her, grabs her by the neck, slams her against another table, and sadistically spills the coffee pot on her body as she screams in agony and he slaps her]], leaving her to slip off the table onto the floor and cry (or possibly fall unconscious). Worse, [[KarmaHoudini nobody stops this from happening]], though they all do look shocked, especially the other waitress. Finally, as the father sits back down in his chair and the family continues to enjoy their time as if nothing happened, an announcer says "You wouldn't get away with it here, you shouldn't get away with it at home." The horrible display is made even worse by the fact that just before the man attacks the waitress, the reactions of [[TheWoobie his children]] show that even they, despite both being under the age of 10, just know the signals of when he's about to go off and [[FridgeHorror have previously witnessed his abuse happening to someone else, suffered from it themselves, or both]]. This PSA was one of many made by Homefront in Calgary and, unsurprisingly enough, was considered controversial for TV. (Never mind the fact that the man calls the waitress a "fuckin' bitch" before he beats her.) |
| 330 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GdTgjn_lsM Another ad in the series]] that was also banned features an employee accidentally speaking over the manager during a board meeting, and being [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown sadistically beaten]] in front of everyone. Like the "Spilled the Coffee" short, the co-workers sit in {{stunned silence}} rather than try to stop it (although they do go to help her, and the presenter leaves the office, presumably to get the manager's supervisor). [[note]]Of course in the real world, the manager would likely be immediately terminated and face a long list of criminal charges.[[/note]] |
| 331 | * The UK charity Samaritans has made many a harrowing advert over the years: |
| 332 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4SAe9JhJ8I This cinema ad]] from 1989 (rated 15) features a woman (supposedly named Saira) in a dark room who is talking to the camera about ''[[DrivenToSuicide something]]'', but the only noise that comes out of her mouth is some sort of horrifying, distorted electric-guitar noise. At the beginning, she seems perfectly content and fine, but by the end of the ad, she's reduced to screaming through her tears as the camera backs out to reveal that she's stuck in a dark corner. Some text pops up in the bottom right that says: "THE SAMARITANS UNDERSTAND." The fact that the audience can get the gist of what she is talking about but are only hearing the electronic noise is pretty horrifying because it feels like a massive guilt trip. She is opening up but nobody is listening or there to help her. |
| 333 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3YlzBRdqT8 Another distressing 1992 cinema ad]] features the sounds of people speaking, talking about things like divorce, job loss, repossession, fines, etc. accompanied by wavy white lines swimming across the screen — which eventually form a telephone with ''teeth'' that emits a loud, harrowing scream, showing that the man on the receiving end of all this misfortune just can't take it anymore and has decided to call the Samaritans. And worst of all, it received a ''U certificate from the BBFC''. |
| 334 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXeNXsDc1cM Another advert]], from around the time of the foot and mouth epidemic in the UK in 2001, shows clearly devastated farmers who have either had all of their livestock die or been forced to kill and burn them in an effort to contain the illness, as well as the mounds of dead animals that resulted and the enormous bonfires of livestock. Some of the things the farmers come out with are nightmare fuel alone: "I used to know them all by name... now they're just over there with their legs sticking in the air" being one of the ''nicer'' comments. All of this is set to Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings", of all things. |
| 335 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oMxg4xa0qQ This one]] shows a man trapped behind translucent plastic, screaming and trying to stretch through the wrap, all set to a creepy rendition of Music/PinkFloyd's "Is There Anybody Out There?". |
| 336 | ** [[https://youtu.be/7NxCbWTsfIs This Christmastime 1998]] ad features various people going through their own hardships, including a man beating his wife at Christmas dinner in front of their two crying children, a middle-aged woman (implied to be widowed) sitting alone at her kitchen table, and a divorced father breaking down over the fact that he can't spend the holidays with his young children. The deliberate SoundtrackDissonance of Music/BingCrosby's "Deck The Halls" is in stark contrast to everyone's misery. |
| 337 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqlSJGj8sKc&ab_channel=TheHallofAdvertising This one from 2005]] shows some kind of parody of a grindhouse horror film, which begins with unsettling shots of a bike and a shoe in the woods, while we then see a woman running, which reveals that she is running away from some creepy looking zombies. As she's panicking and screaming all the while, she spots a ute and runs over to it. The driver stops and asks if she wants any help, but she politely declines. After the driver leaves, the zombies come closer as the woman screams in terror and runs past a phone box, which has a sign that reminds us to never be afraid to ask for help. |
| 338 | * Housing charity Shelter ran an ad showing a family forced to live at a "bed and breakfast" (cheap hostel accommodation offered to the homeless) in a room the size of a solitary confinement cell in jail. Tempers begin to fray with the baby screaming, the mother nagging, and the father shouting. Eventually, he lunges for his daughter because her out-of-tune music practice is irritating him; his wife gets in the way, and the ad ends on a freeze-frame of the guy about to violently beat her. You can see it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yjbNxhyX6g here]]. |
| 339 | * An [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsq6cCYPVy4 ad for the US National Domestic Violence Hotline]] has a cover of Music/PeterGabriel's "Mercy Street" by Emy Reynolds playing while a woman stands in front of a bathroom mirror. Bruises continually form on her face and fade away, but become progressively worse. Text gives the ad's message that abuse doesn't stop on its own, further emphasized by the ending in which the woman quickly turns around as the screen cuts to black, suggesting whoever did this to her is about to do it again. The bruises on her neck also imply that just because she survived the abuse this time doesn't mean that she will survive next time, making this ad heartbreaking as well as horrifying. |
| 340 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EibBIpuWmI8 One PSA]] from the early 2000s features a black-and-white image of a baby sleeping peacefully as an [[SoundtrackDissonance instrumental of "Brahms's Lullaby" plays in the background]]. It is also in the background that we hear the child's parents, yelling and arguing with each other. The images of their angry faces, yelling mouths, and the escalating violence (of dishes smashing and the parents striking each other in the face) are projected ''onto the baby itself''. More angry shouting is heard, accompanied by violent images and the sounds of the baby crying and the wail of a police siren: |
| 341 | -->'''Adult voice:''' I'm sick of this, I'm sick of dealing with you, I'm sick of this house, it's a mess--\ |
| 342 | '''Another adult voice:''' I work six days a week!\ |
| 343 | '''Adult voice:''' WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?\ |
| 344 | '''Another adult voice:''' [[AbusiveParents Don't you ever talk back to me again!]] You just ''SHUT UP!''\ |
| 345 | '''Teenage voice:''' What are you crying about, brat? |
| 346 | :: : The last image is of the kid, now a young teenager, [[FromBadToWorse pointing a gun at someone off-camera]] as the screen then goes black and [[ViolenceDiscretionShot a single shot is heard]]. It then goes back to the sleeping baby, and a woman's voice then says "What a child learns about violence, a child learns for life." There are three versions of the commercial: the full-length one of 30 seconds that ends with the gunshot, a 15-second one with the gunshot and another 30-second one that instead of the shot being fired, [[NothingIsScarier we hear a ghostly, unsettling silence]]. |
| 347 | * There are some British adverts against domestic violence, produced by the Home Office. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzDr18UYO18 One of them]] features a teenage boy verbally and physically abusing his girlfriend. The camera then cuts to his bedroom window, where he is outside, looking in on himself and his girlfriend, banging on the window and screaming at himself to leave her alone. The idea is a very good one, that if you could see yourself, you might think twice about domestic violence, but it's still creepy. There was also a matching set done for the girl of the relationship, encouraging her to speak out about being abused that's just as horrifying. They later made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPC-Q2NMwJw another ad]] for rape, and it's just as saddening. |
| 348 | * From Mexico's National Human Right's Commission comes [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKSt-sHdJaA this horror]]. It shows a happy couple talking about how their significant other is a wonderful and beautiful person. It then shows them spinning around in a field as the music slowly turns ominous, while the girl's face becomes worried and the guy's face becomes creepy. She asks him, "Why do you hurt me?", to which he replies, "Because you are worth a lot... ''[[OnlyInItForTheMoney of money]]''", as he lets go and the girl falls into a dark room occupied with other girls as she cowers in fear. |
| 349 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzlLqjVwJbA This 2022 Women's Aid advert]], which was released around the same time as the UsefulNotes/{{Qatar}} FIFA World Cup, shows a suburban street at night overlaid with the sounds of cheering crowds; we then cut to a house with the England flag with the words "He's coming home". This was done to warn of how domestic abuse goes up during sports season. |
| 350 | * Another particularly nasty Women's Aid campaign, made in 2016, entitled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtYR_EQg8yE Do You See Her?]], was made to warn of domestic abuse among the elderly. It shows a montage of an elderly couple -- played by Creator/TessaPeakeJones and Creator/PhilDavis -- having dinner with their daughter (played by Anne-Marie Duff) and their young grandchildren, having fun. Then we see what happens when they aren't present; the man screams abuse at his wife and beats her on the stairs. |
| 351 | * An unsettling ad from UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}}'s Associação Portuguesa de Apoio à Vítima (APAV) [[note]] Portuguese Association for Victim Support [[/note]], titled "Perdeu a Esperança" ("She Lost Hope"), depicts a naked woman in a morgue, while the narrator coldly tells the audience her story: that she held out hope that her relationship with her husband would get better... [[WhamLine but the hope only died when she died]]. All the while the camera slowly pans up to her battered body, including [[BodyHorror a horrifying close-up of her disfigured face, clearly showing that she was beaten to death]]. The ad concludes with the APAV hotline as the narrator asks any victim watching to drop the hope and call the phone number. If you dare, you may find the ad -- alongside all of the other APAV campaigns, the majority of which focus on violence -- [[https://apav.pt/apav_v3/index.php/pt/e-media/campanhas on their website]]. |
| 352 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrCOjfPjS8o&ab_channel=Kl%C3%A4ymanFH This creepy French ad]] from the Ministry of Justice starts off with a young woman staring at the camera without even blinking. She then begins to develop bruises all over her face. Over each of the wounds, we're given captions that alternate between "He loves me" and "He loves me not". While all this is going on, we hear a heart monitor beeping in the background which flatlines as the camera cuts to a dark hospital room, revealing that the woman is ''dead.'' A mortician then covers her face with a blanket, and we're told that in France, one woman out of ten suffers from marital violence. |
| 353 | * On a similar note, UsefulNotes/{{France}} made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHwzYK7_CCY another one in 2006]], in which a woman gets harassed and assaulted by her husband for no reason. Dark enough, but the kicker is the end, in which the couple's kid ''kicks his mom in the midsection'', having seen everything. |
| 354 | -->'''Narrator:''' A man who beats his wife is teaching his children violence. |
| 355 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4RjsqPYaS0 This one from Woman's Aid]] begins with a woman leaving from work. When she gets out of her car, she sees her husband awkwardly looking at her. She then takes the elevator and enters her apartment, calls her husband, and spots some shattered glass and blood on the floor. We then see her husband walking behind her, causing the woman to quickly look back to look at her angrily. She gives him a cloth but he snatches it angrily and slaps her in the face with the cloth. The woman then looks at the camera telling the audience that they didn't agree to that and that it wasn't in the script. The man suddenly knocks her out on the ground, with the woman begging for help as we are then revealed that they are on a film set. |
| 356 | -->'''Tagline:''' Isn't it time someone called cut? |
| 357 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMeQvaU7AA&ab_channel=easportsbig899 This British 1994 ad]] from Refuge. This one shows women doing different things, while the narrator informs us about different statistics. The ad is quite tame at first until we get to the last statistic, which shows a woman's husband grabbing her, punching her, pushing her to the ground, and violently kicking her. |
| 358 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcS155gaFJE&ab_channel=easportsbig899 This British 2001 ad]] from Womankind Worldwide, rated 15. It basically shows a man abusing every fourth woman on the street. One gets slapped, one gets called a "bitch" right in her face, one gets punched in the chest, and the last fourth one is revealed to be his wife, who is in his house, as the man walks inside. |
| 359 | -->'''Narrator:''' Usually, it's hidden behind closed doors. |
| 360 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bjBZPXHwqo&ab_channel=GhostPictures This one from Australia]] shows home video footage of a wedding. We then see a woman falling and banging her head on the TV and cracking it, revealing that her husband is physically and verbally abusing her, with her daughter standing and watching. [[SoundtrackDissonance The wedding music does not help at all.]] |
| 361 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbuW91_z7HE&ab_channel=womensaid This one from Women's Aid in 2018]] shows a brutal domestic violence incident, except with it [[AbuseDiscretionShot cutting to black during the worst moments.]] The ad concludes with the message "To watch the PSA unedited, you have to be over 18... [[WhamShot or one of over 160,000 children living with domestic violence]]", as it reveals the couple's son who's had a front-row seat to the whole sordid affair. |
| 362 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTJT3fVv1vU&ab_channel=NOMORE This]] SuperBowlSpecial PSA from No More during UsefulNotes/SuperBowl XLIX in 2015 begins with a victim of domestic violence calling the cops and disguising as a woman ordering pizza. The officer then gets confused for a second but then finally understands what she is doing and asks her if there is someone in the room and that he has an officer a mile from her location. While we hear all this, we get to see unsettling shots of stuff on the floor, dirty dishes, a dent on a wall, etc. |
| 363 | ** In 2019, a woman in UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}} [[https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ohio-woman-who-called-911-pizza-was-really-reporting-domestic-n1089636 actually did this to save her mother]]. [[https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/26/us/what-to-do-if-you-cant-speak-to-911/index.html Police are now figuring out ways to help with these calls]] — rather than coded language, which abusers might get wise to, you're told to stay on the line as long as you can, use your voice or whisper to convey urgency, and dispatchers are told to persist and ask yes and no questions. By far the best way to summon help is to ''text'' 911 rather than making a pizza call. |
| 364 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgWJtsgqdCI This horrifying PSA from 2002]] features an actual 911 call of a child explaining that her mother is getting abused by her ex-boyfriend. We even get to hear her mother in the background shouting for her child to call the police. Once the police officer asks if the man has any weapons, the child responds with a yes. Suddenly, we hear a '''violent knocking noise (possibly a GUNSHOT)''' as the child screams. The disturbing imagery ''does not'' help and neither does the narrator. |
| 365 | --> '''Child:''' My mom just fell down the stairs... '''''[[SuddenlyShouting MO]][[IWantMyMommy MM]][[HellIsThatNoise Y!!!!]]''''' |
| 366 | * In late 2010, the Metropolitan Police released an audio ad featuring the distorted voice of a man screaming abuse at and then brutally beating his partner. It concluded by asking the listener what they would do if they heard something like that going on next door. |
| 367 | * [[https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/34638765/day-after-day/white-ribbon-canada This PSA]] from the White Ribbon Campaign meant to raise awareness of domestic violence in the wake of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic. It features a man as he narrates experiencing a growing sense of worthlessness and a feeling of being trapped with no escape due to being stuck at home because of the pandemic, which grows into resentment that leads him to emotionally abuse his wife and young son. The focus then switches to the wife, who begins to feel a similar feeling of being trapped and worthless as a result of her husband's abuse (which is also implied to be physical, given that she's sporting a faint but still-noticeable bruise around her eye), repeating his exact narration, except sounding far more beaten-down and hopeless. Eventually, she decides to leave with her son one night, [[HopeSpot only for the husband to spot her as she's getting the car out of the driveway]], and the PSA ends with them returning back to the house, with seemingly little hope of her ever trying to leave again. |
| 368 | -->''"Just for a moment... imagine you are trapped day after day. No way out, no release. Day after day, just a growing sense of worthlessness. An all-consuming shame. Day after day."'' |
| 369 | * Kunto Sangmo (a.k.a. the Association for Life and Dearth Practice) released [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec0bM3tf4Jc "Dignity"]], a harrowing short (and [[https://adsspot.me/media/prints/kunto-sangmo-tv-64ad89be8209 print ad]]) depicting an old lady left to lay vacantly in a BleakAbyssRetirementHome, completely bereft of any love or attention. |
| 370 | --> The last moment in life should be more beautiful. Donate now for a humane end. |
| 371 | * UsefulNotes/{{Finland}}'s domestic violence campaign does not pull any punches: |
| 372 | ** "[[https://youtu.be/oVSdS6qOWWI?t=20 Silent Scream]]" opens with a man and a woman engaged in an unholy shouting match before they get into their cars and attempt to take off whilst hollering like total maniacs. It's only now that the ad reveals someone tied up between the cars -- their son, whimpering from the incredible strain. |
| 373 | --->The one who shouts the least suffers the most. |
| 374 | ** "Tremble" lingers on the sight of a little old lady shaking like a leaf as she tries to have her morning tea, only calming once her son leaves the house. The [[PlayingTheHeartStrings morose violin]] perfectly drives home the utter anguish of her situation. |
| 375 | ** "The Hand" opens with a {{setpiece}} straight out of a {{horror}} film -- ItWasADarkAndStormyNight when a man enters a HauntedHouse ''missing his right hand''. Said hand [[AnimateBodyParts scurries up the stairs like an insect]], and the man gives chase, catching his EvilHand right before it can throttle a sleeping woman -- at which the advert cuts to reality as the man realizes just how close he came to lashing out at the wrong person. |
| 376 | --->Act before violence gets out of hand. |
| 377 | * [[https://youtu.be/bdy32yOF_XA?feature=shared One French PSA]] gets to the point very quickly, as a woman by the name of Anne Leroy talks about how horribly her husband abused her... [[HopeSpot until "it ended at least"]]. Just when the camera pans down to ''her grave''. |
| 378 | * From the Hamburg Police comes an ad in which a man hears a blood-curdling scream in the distance and heads for the hills. Only once he's far enough away does he notice [[LiteralMetaphor his hands covered in blood]] -- After all, "[[AccompliceByInaction Doing nothing is taking part.]]" |
| 379 | * UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} gives us [[https://youtu.be/E66pDGjJdbk?t=156 this ad]] in which a woman named Paola gives the viewer a TheReasonISuckSpeech, only for a man's voice to take over half through, the lesson being that "Sometimes a woman's voice is not her own." |
| 380 | * This ad for Kementerian Negara Pemberdayaan Perempuan (The Ministry of Women Empowerment in English) nailed its message on how domestic abuse does not only affect mothers but also the kids. It starts with a group of students given a task by a teacher to draw his/her mother. A boy with a horrified expression drawing and showing to the teacher a picture of his mom crying, presumably due to the abuse she suffered. The next day, the teacher instructed the students to draw his/her father. The same boy angrily drawing his dad, even crumpling the paper used for drawing at a moment. The PSA ends with the shot of the drawing of his father with haunting, angry face. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24vzjhMx6i4 See here]] |
| 381 | [[/folder]] |
| 382 | !!Rape and Sexual Violence |
| 383 | Let's make it crystal clear that RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil. |
| 384 | [[folder:Rape and Sexual Violence]] |
| 385 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o92M92omEH0 There's a campaign]] called "It's a girl" making the rounds for the Canadian Women's Foundation. We start out watching a baby shower in someone's house and at one point, the new mother opens up a package and finds out that a relative has given her new baby girl a whistle. She's confused for a second but when the woman who gave it to her explains that it's a ''rape whistle'', things become fairly clear. As the mood chills, the announcer explains how dire life can still be for women and we cut to the organization's logo and mission statement. |
| 386 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baatmKyEEFs A cinema ad for a British rape crisis charity]] (rated 15) showed a woman in bed having nightmares, while a soundtrack plays of her being raped by a neighbour and then people saying various offensive, unhelpful, or UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming things to her (such as asking what she was wearing and whether she was having an affair with the rapist). Eventually she wakes up and screams. |
| 387 | * [[https://youtu.be/GB8XCOu1-dQ This PSA]] about both textual harassment and dating abuse, which was made by Futures Without Violence as part of a campaign called "That's Not Cool". It depicts a girl being creepily followed around by her presumed boyfriend in a cell phone costume (including when she wakes up, goes to school, and spends time with her friends), who's constantly telling her to "text [him]" and eventually asks for her to send him nude pictures by the end of the ad. [[https://youtu.be/bZfe56ICRVc The radio version]] is even more unnerving: likening textual harassment to having an "angry robot" send texts for you, an off-putting robotic, monotone voice reads out the texts sent from the abuser. As the ad progresses, the texts become increasingly impatient and aggressive. The real kicker is the final text read before the female announcer speaks: ''[[ParanoiaFuel "I'm waiting outside your house."]]'' |
| 388 | * A Canadian PSA has [[https://youtu.be/7DvqTJ0FeQg four different scenarios]] where a man breaks the fourth wall and whispering thanks to the viewer for not telling on him for his various acts of sexual misconduct, including giving another employee an unwanted massage at work, sending nudes of their girlfriend to his friends, drugging a woman's drink when her back is turned and worst of all, ''preparing to rape an intoxicated and barely conscious girl at a party while his buddies cheer him on.'' The commercial then breaks from the scenarios via a white-text-on-a-black-screen asking the viewer [[WhatYouAreInTheDark if they would speak or act out to do the right thing.]] [[SurprisinglyHappyEnding Thankfully,]] the ad ends on a positive note with each woman thanking the audience themselves, with the boss being informed about the harassment (as the other employee is being dressed down by said boss with a worried look on his face), the girlfriend learning of the nudes leak before it got too big, the bartender being informed and managing to both tell the woman and give her a new drink and the girl at the party now conscious and being led out by two friends. |
| 389 | * In June 2016, Icatha College student Yana Mazurkevich teamed up with Current Solutions to release [[https://www.boredpanda.com/protest-brock-turner-release-it-happened-yana-mazurkevich/ "It Happens"]], a photo series about the many ways someone can be sexually assaulted. Each picture depicts the beginning of one such assault captioned with "it happens _____" while the victim gives an AsideGlance. The last, and most harrowing[[note]]It may be an allusion to the event that inspired this campaign, in which Stanford student [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_v._Turner Brock Turner only served half of a six-month prison sentence for raping an unconcious woman behind a dumpster]].[[/note]], depicts a girl left beside a dumpster and simply says "it happened". |
| 390 | * An early 2018 PSA from Joyful Heart has a woman in a warehouse full of various other women on shelves as she's transferred via a forklift and cries out to them describing her rapist in detail, says that he left his DNA and asks, "That's enough to catch him, right? Right?" They represent the number of backlogged, untested rape kits that have been forgotten and [[KarmaHoudini which allow their attackers to get away with their crime]] ([[ParanoiaFuel and that happens more often than one thinks, even in the present day]]). There are two versions of the commercial: [[https://youtu.be/-4ay9oiKUbU a 30-second version]] where she is placed on the shelf with the forklift leaving and [[https://youtu.be/Eu0IwAUwsZQ 60-second version]] where she says she can't get his voice out of her head and she is sat next to a woman after asking if they'll catch the man who shakes her head and mouths "no". |
| 391 | * A series of 2018 [=PSAs=] by the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN3BJLd08_A Busan Metropolitan Police Agency]] are as creative as they are insidious. They were disguised as voyeur pornography and uploaded to file-sharing sites. They feature hidden camera shots of a woman changing, using the toilet, etc... Before the footage is interrupted by the woman's [[StringyHairedGhostGirl vengeful ghost]] accompanied by the tagline: "You may be the one driving her to suicide", followed by "This site is being monitored by the police". This campaign proved so effective that [[https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/34561682/stop-downloadkill/busan-metropolitan-police-agency voyeur video distribution declined by 21%]] afterward. |
| 392 | [[/folder]] |
| 393 | !!Famine, Homelessness, and Poverty |
| 394 | Let's face it, ViewersLikeYou are most likely desensitized to the notion of starving children in developing countries, but the fact remains that their plight is very, very real, as these adverts will remind you. |
| 395 | [[folder:Famine, Homelessness, and Poverty]] |
| 396 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awYNaiHyjb0 This 1986 Sport Aid PIF]] has extremely terrifying visuals and audio as the announcer explains that UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, in the last 12 months, has paid four times as much in debt repayments as they get in aid, while many African women drop ''corpses into a giant piggy bank''. If that doesn't scar you for life, ''the freeze frame of a woman screaming at the end combined with a horrifying synthesized scream'' will. |
| 397 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XETxNDtDQGs "Sallymatu"]], by the same people as the above ad and narrated by Creator/PaulDarrow, is just as disturbing even without the awful visuals of the above. It starts out innocently enough, with us entering an African hut to find a baby lying on some blankets. Darrow introduces the child as Sallymatu, a perfectly healthy baby who will get her vaccines to prevent certain illnesses. Darrow goes on to explain that there's one illness they can't inoculate her against, however -- "Famine". Which is said in the most disturbed, hushed, alarmed, frightening whisper you can imagine as two vultures suddenly swoop down from the sky and enter the hut, closing in on the suddenly very upset-looking baby. It sounds overwrought on paper, but it's not. Doubly disturbing if you've seen [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b8/Kevin-Carter-Child-Vulture-Sudan.jpg the famous image]] of the starving child being stalked by a vulture who is waiting for the kid to die. |
| 398 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5taLU98m7JI This PSA]] discusses the plight of starving children in third world countries, and juxtaposes footage of dead and dying children with real footage from German Death Camps of UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, bodies being dumped into pits, being buried in mass graves by bulldozers, and even more horrific images. The message is that starvation kills as many children abroad as the Death Camps killed Jewish [=POWs=]. It's absolutely grotesque and harrowing, and the juxtaposition is so sick it prompted the uploader to title the video, "What The Hell is Wrong With You?". |
| 399 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYo80KarIVY&ab_channel=easportsbig899 One eerie British ad]] from 1988 features a toddler walking to a DisgustingPublicToilet to ''[[NauseaFuel drink the toilet water]].'' While all this is happening, we're told that five million young children die in the Third World from drinking water polluted with feces. At one point, the voice-over compares black people drinking polluted water to white people drinking toilet water. The camerawork doesn't help either. |
| 400 | * An outdoor ad campaign called "The Longest Night" from Open Family UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} targeting child homelessness. Its [[http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/353/70/1600/homeless_outdoor1.jpg trio]] [[http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/353/70/1600/grey_social_billboards.jpg of]] [[http://cocoproductions.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/022_Longest_night-743x1024.jpg ads]] are quite unnerving in their portrayal of how TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou. |
| 401 | * One PFI depicted a scene where homelessness caused a mom to lose everything in the fire as she, her son, and her daughter stand outside, waiting for the fire department to arrive. Hopefully, the American Red Cross is there to help families regain what they lost during the holidays. |
| 402 | * If you thought BodyHorror was terrifying, [[https://youtu.be/Y0ZqdZC1V-I then look no further than in this ad]] for the Robert Marinho Foundation in the early 90's, which features a kid slowly morphing into a monkey while creepy and unsettling music plays in the background. During the ad, a narrator claims that children are deprived of education, which is something that helps us become human and shouldn't be denied, and as a result, they "stop becoming human" (as in that they are slowly losing their intelligence). This commercial was so terrifying that Chadtronic covered it in his Halloween Special of his Cursed Commercials series in 2022, and gave it a full 10 for its extremely disturbing atmosphere. While some find it creepy, many find it hilarious due to ironically preceding the "Reject Humanity, Return to Monke" meme, and it also received popularity with the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' fanbase. |
| 403 | [[/folder]] |
| 404 | !!Human rights |
| 405 | We've already looked at a few HumanRightsIssues in the above categories, but the entire subject covers a very broad spectrum, so let's take things to a higher scale, shall we...? |
| 406 | [[folder:Human Rights Concerns]] |
| 407 | * UsefulNotes/KansasCity Star's "Lessons From My Neighborhood" videos. There's one about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpTKdu3s_Fs two boys watching their mother shoot heroin]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ffTMZSosE a girl who is starving since her mother can't afford food]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0EMZ6JYEaY what to do in a shootout]]. |
| 408 | ** Their book "Welcome To My Neighborhood" is even worse: the cover looks cute enough, but there are broken beer bottles on the ground. The first story, "The Good Man", features a rat's crack-addicted boyfriend [[DomesticAbuse violently beating her daughter]]; "Dinnertime" features an impoverished family of anthropomorphic cats rationing food; and "My Big Brothers" features three rabbits committing bank robbery and murder (complete with a frog's bloody bullet wounds). [[MuggingTheMonster Granted, the third brother was about to be raped, but the way he strangled that opossum was just gruesome]]. What's especially alarming is that these stories are based on ''reported incidents that actually happened'', with each of the three stories followed by an account of a child giving a more detailed description of their hardship that the given story is based on. |
| 409 | * [[https://youtu.be/2SwA1Tgi6YU This]] UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}ese PSA for stopping child labor. It features a child worker putting an S.O.S. in a pair of pants. Even worse, when a shopper finds the note, [[BystanderSyndrome he drops it and leaves it on the floor]], leaving the child's fate unknown. It's never indicated whether the shopper simply didn't recognize the call for help for what it was, or if [[LackOfEmpathy he didn't care]]. |
| 410 | * Around when the [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror Patriot Act]] got passed, the Ad Council hired various advertising companies to produce a series of quietly horrifying ad spots called "Campaign for Freedom" with the common theme "What if America [[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica wasn't America]]"? They featured [[CrapsackWorld speculative portrayals]] of what life might be like without some of the freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. |
| 411 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKeVbonJaNY "Church"]]: Having to practice your religion of choice ''literally'' underground. The fact that you can hear [[DayOfTheJackboot what sounds like marching in the background]] certainly doesn't help. |
| 412 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suJcQ5g6GdQ "Library"]]: Trying to read banned authors will get you hauled away by thugs. And you thought BookBurning was over the top... |
| 413 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCcVcsqQ5dc "Diner"]]: Don't you '''dare''' criticize the government, even among a gathering of friends. |
| 414 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0y0l0GE8P0 "Arrest"]]: A man gets pulled over by police, dragged out of his car, and arrested. His crime? Carrying newspapers. |
| 415 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00FHtdFCpy0 This]] PIF from Helen Bamber Foundation features Creator/EmmaThompson as two separate women: the innocent, [[ThePollyanna hopeful]] Elena and the hardened, [[BrokenBird broken]] Maria. As we soon learn, the two women are one and the same: Elena was a young aspiring nurse who was kidnapped, renamed Maria, and sold into the brutal world of sexual slavery. Both women explain, from ''both'' their viewpoints, what life was like before and after her enslavement. The [=PIF=] ends with this chilling line: |
| 416 | -->"I '''was''' Elena. I '''am''' Maria." |
| 417 | * Amnesty International is fond of making such adverts to help raise awareness about international concerns. |
| 418 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xZZgMmrAhg An ad from 1986]] is just a straight one-minute build-up to someone about to be subjected to ElectricTorture. The prisoner's blood-curdling screams near the end are bound to keep you up for the rest of the night. What's worse is the occasional screams coming from elsewhere in the building, making it clear that he's far from the only victim there. |
| 419 | ** They once ran a campaign called "Unsubscribe to Torture" which had a series of videos showing prisoners from the UsefulNotes/MiddleEast being tortured in various ways. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dLccPF5E2o One memorable ad]] involved artistic slow-motion clips of water pouring at a black background. The water is later played in regular speed as it reveals the pouring water was being used to waterboard a prisoner, which then cuts to actual footage of people being waterboarded. |
| 420 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR-qZrYyhXo This ad]] criticizes the UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n government's human rights violations and their cover-ups of such things from the public by comparing it to someone assembling Russian dolls. All of this is juxtaposed with distorted sound effects and creepy lighting to create a truly disturbing advert. And also the ad's rendition of "Korobeiniki" does not help either |
| 421 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZW5DN6Xcyg This ad]] shows a variety of unpleasant things such as polluted waters, a journalist's dead body, someone being brutally tortured, child soldiers, and someone being beheaded. All of which is covered with what appears to be dollar bills. The ad then tells you that Amnesty International refuses donations from governments and international corporations, as such money can be used to cover up all the things shown in the video. |
| 422 | ** In the run-up to the 2008 UsefulNotes/{{Beijing}} UsefulNotes/{{Olympic|Games}}s, Amnesty UK released a series of shorts highlighting UsefulNotes/{{China}}'s many human rights violations, all centered on cute cartoon animals competing in the Games... with a very dark turn... |
| 423 | ### "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84GwPS05yPk Torchure]]" Opens with a lawman torturing a peaceful protester with the Torch itself -- the Carrier is none-the-wiser when lawman hands the Torch over for the Opening Ceremony, and promptly demands it back when the lighting is done. |
| 424 | ### "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wGFpHCmXP8 Badminton]]" depicts an innocent match between two players, the second using a "human rights for China" sign. Said player winds up flying right into the first and savagely beaten with their own sign by the lawman. |
| 425 | ### "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-150WTHC1Zo Pole Vault]]" sees a protester competing in the event, his sign mounted on the top of his pole. As a result, he lands [[FallingIntoJail in a police van.]] |
| 426 | ### "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkiBFBOMhBg False Start]]" takes place at the 100 Meter Dash, complete with ParodiesOfFire. The lead racer displays a "human rights for China" sign and gets [[BoomHeadshot a bullet to the head]] as a result. |
| 427 | * [[https://youtu.be/LpYbJOMEqsI This genuinely disturbing (and [=NSFW=]) PIF from Finland]] features a young woman who leaves her family, including her beloved kid sister, to go off to what she thinks is modeling, but in reality, she has been trafficked. Through increasingly graphic visuals (including physical and sexual assault), we see the girl eventually come to realize the danger that she's in. [[HopeSpot At one point it appears that she is running towards her sister]], [[CruelTwistEnding but she's really trying to escape her captors, who catch up to her]], [[RapeDiscretionShot and the last shot]] is of her once again being assaulted. |
| 428 | --> ''"Human trafficking is '''''not''''' a fairy tale. It is the sad story of hundreds of people - even in Finland. The victims can be exploited as either a prostitute or forced labor. They are put in debt and have to go through violence and ransom. '''''Don't turn a blind eye to human trafficking'''''. If you see signs of it, report to: www.ihmiskauppa.fi."'' |
| 429 | [[/folder]] |
| 430 | !!Warfare, Terrorism, and their Victims |
| 431 | WarIsHell, pure and simple, for both soldiers and civilians alike, so it's only natural that there are many ad campaigns to remind us of this harsh reality. |
| 432 | [[folder:War]] |
| 433 | * This Pro-UsefulNotes/{{Palestine}} PSA, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYamviV7ZSY "Imagine if London was Occupied by Israel"]]. The blood on the girl and the fact that the man can't get her to an ambulance is extremely terrifying. |
| 434 | * This pro-UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} PSA, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sThbTtJGaBY "15 Seconds"]], is horrifyingly effective at conveying the fear of living under constant threat of rocket attacks. Imagine hearing that siren going off out of nowhere and knowing you only have fifteen seconds to get yourself and your loved ones to safety. And then there's the little girl whose mother couldn't save her in time. |
| 435 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwJkg9uFIPA This 2000 PIF for Save the Children]] is nothing short of horrific. We see a goldfish happily swimming in a fishbowl, until, all of a sudden, a hand violently grabs it and leaves it on the countertop, where we get to watch it suffocate fully. All of this is overdubbed with audio of a child screaming (which is actually [[Film/TheBlairWitchProject Rei Hance]]) against gunshots, ending with her hyperventilating. |
| 436 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWZkuXwPVx0 This PSA]] is meant to raise awareness of the problem of landmines. It's mostly just disturbing. It features some kids celebrating a soccer/football win. As one of the team players approaches the other, a landmine suddenly goes off. Children scream and run away as horrified parents look on. |
| 437 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0Klv5hu5yk This one]] concerns aid for people on holiday who have gotten themselves locked up abroad. The narration tells us that this organization helps those people, who often are left in unclean jails "to rot". As it says this, we see what clearly looks like a woman's corpse, mouth agape... before a cockroach falls into her mouth and she wakes up, spitting it out in disgust. The worst part? A note at the end tells us that this was ''a true story'' and it really happened to someone. |
| 438 | * Quite a few from "Reporters Sans Frontieres" (Reporters Without Borders). |
| 439 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_VgQacMtKw One PSA]] features a seemingly real homemade video in which a couple witnesses a shooting on video. The message? "In the last 15 years, access to information has cost 850 journalists' lives." |
| 440 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_A27rIOoco There is an ad]] featuring military parades from countries such as UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}, UsefulNotes/{{China}}, UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}, UsefulNotes/SaudiArabia, UsefulNotes/NorthKorea, UsefulNotes/{{Zimbabwe}}, among other oppressive nations (even the US and UK are depicted as well), set to bouncy energetic music. Then the text reads, "Without independent reporters, war would just be a nice show." This is followed by a fade to black and a black-and-white slideshow depicting graphic photos in quick succession of unearthed mass graves, people grieving over tombstones, a burned-down house with a couple looking at the ruins, an African man with a physically scarred face, a mass of dead bodies in a cargo truck, a middle-eastern man who is writhing on the floor from being shot, people in hospital beds in hysterics, among other images of war, famine, bloodshed, ending on a picture of a reporter taking photos from some sort of civil war with the text reading, "Support those that risk their lives to bring us the truth." One of the most harrowing [=PIFs=] from the RSF, due to the very graphic photos. |
| 441 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwoa_XZTIGE Another harrowing ad]] shows a shipping container in the middle of a desert. The narrator says that there is no cargo, yet it is not empty. The narrator then says a reporter has been locked up for ''12 years''. |
| 442 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hiu19h21eqs An extremely creepy PIF]] at first seems like a commercial for an action figure, known as "reporter man". The toy is then gagged, lit on fire, electrocuted, drowned, dismembered, and tortured while the narrator still pitches this action figure. A black background with white text then reads, "Today for more than 200 journalists, torture, prison or death are a reality". |
| 443 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRamyBnFQr0 One PIF]] features a beautiful beach with nice UsefulNotes/{{Havana}} music playing, surrounded by an all black background. All of a sudden a face pops into the frame giving a {{death|Glare}}ly KubrickStare as if one was in a prison. Then the message hits, "Welcome to UsefulNotes/{{Cuba}}. One of the world's biggest jails for journalists." |
| 444 | ** [[https://youtu.be/CP3rCia13JY This PSA]], similarly to Pictures mentioned below, simply shows a white screen being projected against a wall while an ominous-sounding narrator describes various atrocities that have happened in UsefulNotes/{{Algeria}}; four people being murdered in Boufarik while a man tries to get one of the dead bodies out of a burning car, [[ImperiledInPregnancy a pregnant woman lying on the ground in Darshuk]], presumably dead from an attack that happened a few minutes before, and eleven people, ''including seven children'', being discovered in a house after being killed in an attack. The message? "Don't wait to see more images before defending human rights in Algeria". |
| 445 | * In 1995, a charity organization called Africare released a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvXHwPA_Z7k television ad]] asking for donations in the aftermath of the 1994 UsefulNotes/{{Rwanda}}n genocide (in which almost a million of the country's Tutsi ethnic minority were slaughtered in just 4 months before the government authorizing the killings was overthrown by a rival faction). The images of suffering children are bad enough, but what really makes this ad stand out is the eerie music and rather blunt text encouraging those who do not want to send money to send their unused shoeboxes instead. Why shoeboxes, you may ask? [[WhamLine "We're running out of coffins"]], reads the text appearing over a child who is either sleeping or dead on the ground. |
| 446 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz932iopiX8 One Iraqi anti-terrorism PSA]] involved a man being kidnapped and tortured by terrorists, in graphic detail to the viewer, as they ask him what confession he belongs to -- "Sunni or Shia?!?" -- until he responds, "[[TakeAThirdOption Iraqi]]", followed by a shot to the head and an on-screen text in Arabic that reads, "Terror has no religion." The terrorists' sheer fanaticism alone is patently horrifying. |
| 447 | * During the UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}}n occupation of UsefulNotes/EastTimor, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zEpa9ZJ-vc one Portuguese PSA urged tourists to boycott Indonesia by not going on vacation there]]. It compares the latter territory to a half of an orange which is to be (very violently) juiced (with one's bare hands in a manual juice maker), in the end becoming highly spent. This, at the same time as the narrator tells us about the atrocities the Indonesian government was committing in East Timor. In the end, we see the juice ready to be drunk, next to the spent orange, with the narrator asking the audience to do something about it now that they know about what the Indonesian government had done and sarcastically requesting the audience to at least to raise your glass to the dead and maimed if they still plan on going to Indonesia regardless. The ad has a dreary, ominous music from end to end. |
| 448 | * During the height of UsefulNotes/TheTroubles, a few [=PIFs=] were broadcast on Northern Irish television. |
| 449 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krbLWskgQ_U This one]] depicts a young man being forced to reconsider his apathetic outlook on life after realizing that it had only served to prolong the conflict and ruin people's lives. What pushes it into Nightmare Fuel territory is a brief but rather graphic shot of a VigilanteExecution carried out by some IRA members. Seeing someone getting shot isn't exactly something you see very often in a PIF, even one of this nature. |
| 450 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1wrGs0S0g8 Another]] shows a father going on a shooting spree set to a cover of ''[[Music/HarryChapin Cats In The Cradle]]''. Years later, the father finds out his teenage son did the same thing he did... only there's no jail time. The father can only look down at his son's body in the coffin being lowered into the ground. The PIF ends with the father by his son's grave on a rainy day. Imagine watching Series/MrBean when all of a sudden this PIF comes up. Doubles as a TearJerker. |
| 451 | * There is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_VFtmJOovc a PSA]] that has audio clips of people telling [[BlackComedy very sick jokes]] about landmines over images of people, mostly children, who have been injured by real landmines. The ad ends with a plea to donate in order to help the group that made the ad afford to keep clearing undiscovered landmines. |
| 452 | * [[https://youtu.be/8JSIdTykq0o This]] PSA for the German Branch of the Red Cross features SantaClaus riding his sleigh from a distance on a cold winter's night as an angelic choir sings in the background. Everything seems peaceful at first until a cannon suddenly appears and shoots him down, with the choir coming to a stop. |
| 453 | -->'''Tagline:''' ''Sorry, there is no peace on Earth. In 16 countries there is war.'' |
| 454 | * [[https://www.facebook.com/HelloImAPizza/videos/anti-violence-red-banana-2006-italy/1270568366378739/ This]] (NSFW/NSFS) Italian PIF against [=PFM1=] Landmines, which are brightly colored and only go off if significant pressure is applied to the wings. It features a young girl in a playroom, featuring toys such as WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'''s Sulley. She walks along and discovers a red plastic banana (representing the landmine). She picks it up, only to be blown to a million pieces offscreen by a group of adults led by TheGeneralissimo behind a window who detonate the banana remotely. We are told that these mines are designed to attract the attention of a child and no sane adult (let alone soldiers) would ever touch one. The final scene is of a toy train passing the girl's ''dismembered foot''. |
| 455 | ** The worst part about this (as pointed out by the ad uploader) is that it doesn't give any way to combat the problem, nor a clear call to action. In general, any PSA/PIF with a similar subject will say that "this needs to stop" at the end and tell the audience that they're doing something about it -- that's not the case for this one. To add insult to injury, the creator of this PIF is seemingly unwilling to show their organization's name, possibly to avoid getting any hate mail from the audience. |
| 456 | ** There's actually a cut of this PIF that lists the names of everyone involved with this Film. [[https://vimeo.com/292708174 Here]] it is. But it does beg the question. Why would you attach your name to this, but not a charity? |
| 457 | * During the Nigerian-Biafran War, [[https://youtu.be/Ulj3XasXmHU this incredibly disturbing ad]] ran on TV. It begins with a picture of a baby, with the camera slowly zooming out, while "Brahms's Lullaby" plays in the background. Then, the song's pitch starts lowering, and the image slowly fades into a picture of a starving child. It ends simply with the word "Biafra" on the screen. Despite the simplicity of the ad, the slow panning plus the music makes it ''very'' unsettling. |
| 458 | * Save the Children's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBQ-IoHfimQ "A Shocking Moment of the Day"]] (also titled "If UsefulNotes/{{London}} Were UsefulNotes/{{Syria}}"), illustrating the life of a young British girl named Lily in brief flashes of her day-to-day life, starting out as ordinary and mundane (beginning with her birthday). While she remains blissfully unaware of the increasingly desperate news headlines and growing animosity between people, things ''really'' turn FromBadToWorse when martial law is declared... and the country devolves into a civil war, forcing her and her family to leave their home and encounter numerous things like sleeping under a bridge, getting held at gunpoint by terrorists, getting caught in skirmishes and attacks, and eventually her father gets separated from them while trying to run. Lily and her mother find a refugee camp where they're treated by doctors, and the video ends with them trying to celebrate Lily's birthday with just a candle and a ration. As her mother tells her to make a wish, Lily silently stares at the camera with [[DespairEventHorizon an empty look in her eyes]]. This is a reality that Syrians have had to face as a result of the Syrian War, the video criticizing people who lack empathy for others who are enduring these hardships. The video ends with the line, "Just because it isn't happening here doesn't mean it isn't happening." |
| 459 | ** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKDgFCojiT8 sequel]] starts with her birthday again, and things continue to go downhill. Like the previous video, it starts with Lily and her mother celebrating the former's birthday again and shows what their ordinary life is like in the camps, including Lily playing with other kids and [[NeverFoundTheBody Lily and her mother putting up missing posters for her father]]. It all spins on its head again when the camp is attacked (with one terrorist even [[WouldHurtAChild about to hurt Lily]] before [[MamaBear her mother tells him to back off]]), and everyone resolves to [[RunForTheBorder take a boat over the English Channel to mainland Europe]]. After much struggle (including a checkpoint having been taken over by terrorists, who fire at their bus as it passes by), Lily's mother is told that there's only room for one of them, and after an argument, she manages to convince Lily to go without her, assuring her that IWillFindYou and to stay in contact with her over their cellphones. Then their rafts are caught in a storm... Many of the refugees drown, but Lily and an orphaned boy named Alfie wash ashore and are found by beachgoers. [[YankTheDogsChain Her phone having shorted out when she fell under]], Lily and Alfie wander Europe aimlessly until they're eventually found by a humanitarian group. After his exam, Alfie is separated from Lily to be given to an adoptive family while she weakly pleads [[DontSplitUsUp "He's all I have left..."]]. When it's Lily's turn, her tester reveals that today is her birthday and tries to cheer her up by asking if she's made a wish before asking her for the name of her parents. Lily, tired and worn, [[ThousandYardStare silently stares at the camera again in despair]]. |
| 460 | * The humanitarian group Terre des hommes deliberately invokes the NothingIsScarier trope [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipAjqfq2b8Y through this advert]] by "showing" the viewer a slideshow of pictures that are only captions on a white background. Said captions describe horrible things such as a woman crying with her deformed baby, a mortally wounded child soldier, and a little girl, implied to be a landmine victim, who just had her leg amputated. The next slide after all of this is just the caption "Thank us for sparing you these pictures. With money." along with the group's charity number. |
| 461 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7mUOycfI9M&ab_channel=easportsbig899 A 1986 British public information film]] urging a boycott of UsefulNotes/{{South Africa}}n products shows two babies -- one black and one white -- happily sitting and playing, with one holding an apple, as a sinister-sounding announcer gives a series of statistics that illustrates the stark differences in the lives of white and black South Africans under [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid]]. As if that wasn't enough, it's set to strings that slowly build into one final dramatic high-pitched chord, getting louder until it finally stops. It's also yet another example of a PIF that managed to get a U certificate despite its content. |
| 462 | --> '''Narrator:''' The World Health Organisation says that one doctor per every 500 people is a healthy ratio. White South Africans have one doctor for every 330. Most blacks share a doctor with more than 19,000 others. So if you buy a Cape Apple today, you really are keeping the doctor away. |
| 463 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA9PZkROEOM&ab_channel=easportsbig899 Another PIF concerning Apartheid]] shows a game of pool in which all the black balls are knocked out while an eerie version of the South African national anthem plays. While all this is happening, a British voice-over mocking a South African accent informs the viewer that in UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica, the blacks outnumber the white people by five to one, but the whites will make sure that they own most of the land and earn over three times more than blacks do, while ensuring they don't have enough houses or the right to vote. The ad ends with the music becoming more dramatic with someone smashing a black ball into the camera with a glass shatter effect. |
| 464 | --> '''Narrator:''' We make sure they don't complain. Because if they do... tough break! |
| 465 | * Friends of John [=McCarthy=] was a campaign dedicated to the British journalist, one of the hostages in the Lebanon hostage crisis. |
| 466 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2TEzuaPf3E&ab_channel=AguilarNava This cinema ad from]] shows scenes of war, intercut with pictures of kidnapped people who were being held hostage, including John [=McCarthy=]. The war scenes are definitely disturbing, especially for little kids, who may well have seen it since this was given a U certificate. |
| 467 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvLNNC9z2h0 Another one from]] 1990 shows pictures of hostages who have been freed from captivity and returning home, while "Homeward Bound" plays in the background. John [=McCarthy=], however, is the only one who hasn't been freed as the text reads "Still held in Beirut".[[note]]A year after this PIF was released, [=McCarthy=] was finally freed on 8th August 1991.[[/note]] |
| 468 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKAnmqdfGQY This one]] from Choice in 2008 shows stuff such as fruit, vegetables, and a bottle of ketchup decimated by a bullet in slow motion. We then see a child staring into the camera, giving viewers a feeling that the child will get shot in the head. Thankfully, the bullet creates a slogan instead. |
| 469 | * These two UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}i [=PSAs=] from Saving Face concerning acid attacks on women, which are distressingly common [[HonorRelatedAbuse "honor crimes"]]: |
| 470 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=286kXzF9LXs This one]] can only be described as a combination of the Rachel Maddow "This Is Your Brain on Heroin" ad and the Chip Pan Fire one from Fire Kills. A woman comes home and, after removing her ''burqa'' and seeing her face in the mirror, begins a violent RageAgainstTheReflection regarding every possibly reflective surface in her house. It's not until the end that we see her horribly mangled, scarred face from a terrible acid attack. |
| 471 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDJmGx7JDZg This ad]] shows exactly who threw the acid on the woman from the first one, with the assailant starting out with an evil little chuckle before he tauntingly tells the audience what he did, with a horrible scream from the woman in the background, before he is shown sitting in jail. A bit more FridgeHorror than the other one, but still awful, especially after watching the above one and realizing they form a complete tale. |
| 472 | * The British organization Doctors without Borders made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DdzqG9yK8c these]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xeIK8eiuZk two]] utterly horrifying ads: |
| 473 | ** The first ad treats us to an audio of doctors helping a boy. [[NothingIsScarier We don't see what happens,]] but it still manages to be unnerving. While we're told, via text, that militiamen had raped his sisters and killed his parents, we hear the boy [[HellIsThatNoise shriek in utter pain and terror.]] |
| 474 | ** That one is already terrifying, the second one manages to be ''even worse''. We're told, once again via text, that midwives are helping a teenager [[TeenPregnancy give birth to twins.]] We also hear the poor girl [[HellIsThatNoise scream in horror]] much like the boy in the previous ad. Already, it manages to be scarier than the first, but, to make things even worse, while the text explains that such a job is [[UnderStatement certainly not an easy one]], a landmine near the area [[JumpScare suddenly]] [[FromBadToWorse goes off]]. The fact that we actually hear their screams after the incident just makes it all the worse. Both ads end with the statement that they can't operate without our help. Easily some of the UK's scariest [=PSAs=]. |
| 475 | * [[https://youtu.be/soAG3-tvCOA This trilogy]] from "Veterans For Peace" has "Toys/ActionMan" action figures to display the tragic aftereffects of war. The first ad features a ShellShockedVeteran who cannot cope with the horrors of war, and after failing to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, [[DrivenToSuicide ends up committing suicide]]. The second ad features a vet who was left a paraplegic and in constant pain, and when his [[KickTheDog benefits end up being cancelled]], he has to work a dead-end job that, due to his disability and the residual pain, he is likely to lose. The final and definitely worst ad features a nineteen-year-old who was graphically killed in action (complete with severed limbs and blood gushing out of his chest) as he ends up "promoted" and his widow attends his somber and rainy funeral. This is all made worse by the [[MoodDissonance cheerful attitudes of the children playing with the "toys"]] and the creepy nature of the figures themselves. Borders on BlackComedy with how they're all depicted in [[CrossesTheLineTwice the over-the-top style of a standard action figure commercial]]. |
| 476 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y9E7Arg6bE A 2017 PSA from France,]] produced by the Creator/DavidLynch Foundation, begins with a montage of battlefield footage, complete with loud gunshots, helicopter noises, and explosions. But then, some text explains that while the on-screen images are taken from the battlefield, [[BaitAndSwitch the sound effects are not.]] After the text instructs the audience to listen again, another montage plays from the first person point-of-view of a ShellShockedVeteran going through his daily routine, including footage of him waking up to his alarm clock and looking up at his ceiling fan, going to the laundromat and washing his clothes, and eventually going to what seems to be a New Year's party with kids popping balloons and lighting up fireworks. The ad ends with the man watching the exploding fireworks out of the window and then anxiously looking down at his hands as one last message appears on the screen: [[WhamLine "Daily sounds can bring veterans right back to war,"]] before encouraging viewers to donate to the David Lynch Foundation. The PSA is extremely clever and effective, although its execution is rather disturbing, especially to those who don't like loud noises; it may also double as a TearJerker for others who relate to suffering from war-related PTSD. |
| 477 | * [[https://youtu.be/pVSNY2rM5FQ?si=66hduH719YRjWnvn This horrific 2013 PSA from the International Society for Human Rights titled "Beautiful Beast"]] (NSFL) starts out like a commercial for some sort of furniture product or high tech device, with a CEO-like figure describing the wonders of his product as we pan over closeups of it. It is then revealed that the product is actually a gun, as we cut to a ''horrific'' compilation of seemingly real footage of people getting shot in war, terrorist attacks, criminal activities, and other situations, with enough gore and screams of terror to haunt you for life. |
| 478 | [[/folder]] |
| 479 | !!Environmental Concerns |
| 480 | If you feel that a more intense GreenAesop is needed, look no further. After all, we only have one UsefulNotes/{{Earth}}, and its ecosystem is a lot more fragile than we thought it was... |
| 481 | [[folder:''Greenpeace'']] |
| 482 | Greenpeace is responsible for several nightmarish and shocking entries. |
| 483 | * [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120717003602/http://archive.greenpeace.org/mayak/ "Half-Life: Living With Nuclear Waste"]] was a 2002 website created by Greenpeace about the UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n Kyshtym disaster, one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. You first get treated to an MediaNotes/AdobeFlash intro featuring [[DramaticThunder ominous thunder]] and an unnerving HeartbeatSoundtrack, all while monochromatic images are shown with translated spoken testimonies from disaster victims. More of said testimonies -- which are pretty unsettling in their own right -- can be viewed within the website itself, but for some reason Greenpeace decided to adorn the website banner with the disturbingly-lit image of ''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20201111230952/http://photo.greenpeace.org/GPIDoc/GPI/Media/TR1_WATERMARKED/3/5/e/3/GP0UN4.jpg a deformed baby in a jar]]''. Chances are, it gave more people nightmares than an incentive to learn about the disaster. Fortunately (or unfortunately, take your pick) Website/InternetArchive has preserved those nightmares long after the site's closure in 2012. |
| 484 | * Here's their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI7pQFyjso response to Dove's famous "Onslaught" campaign for girls' self-esteem.]] Just for comparison, here's the original [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6JvK0W60I Dove campaign]], the imagery which is scary in and of itself, and is even scarier when you know that the Dove soap company is owned by Unilever, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwDEF-w4rJk which also owns Axe Body Spray]] [[note]]Dove Chocolate is owned by Mars... it's a completely different company, which uses palm oil from sustainable sources.[[/note]], making it all {{Hypocrit|e}}ical. Especially nasty are the very disturbing and utterly gratuitous images of ''actual dead orangutans'', often obviously decomposing or mouths fixed in unsettling grins. Which, naturally, ended up being paused because it's not immediately obvious what the relevance is. Protip: '''don't do that'''. |
| 485 | * Greenpeace ran a 15-rated cinema ad protesting the Nestlé company, known for using palm oil, which contributes to deforestation and the loss of orangutan habitats. In the ad a man unwraps a Kit Kat bar (they're manufactured by Nestlé in the United Kingdom but Hershey's in America [[note]]Perhaps because of this ad, Hershey's Kit Kat uses palm oil from sustainable sources.[[/note]]), which turns out to contain ''severed orangutan fingers'', and he bites into them ''with blood dripping from his mouth''. The SickeningCrunch as he bites through the bone will make you cringe. It's so unsettling that Website/YouTube pulled the official upload of the ad and Greenpeace had to host it on Vimeo instead. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaJjPRwExO8 It did make it back to YouTube, however.]] |
| 486 | * A former member of Greenpeace [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZreEBnqlZlk did a commercial]] purporting to be home video footage shot on a handheld camcorder of a family playing by the seaside. A plane then comes in to land above them and as they scream and panic, the camera shows that the plane is crashing into a nuclear power station next to the beach. There is then an end line asking, "Do we really want more nuclear power stations?" |
| 487 | ** Greenpeace [[EveryoneHasStandards distanced itself from the video]] and the former member because (1) he is a hysterical sensationalist and (2) the "commercial" is blatant, ill-informed scaremongering. A passenger jet crashing into a nuclear power station will not cause a meltdown. Given the thickness that the dome on that power station has, a crashing jet would barely crack it--these things are made from concrete, lead, more concrete, and more lead. The woefully poor, chroma-keyed CGI plane [[NightmareRetardant also lessens the intended impact enormously]]. |
| 488 | * Another anti-nuclear Greenpeace ad shown in cinemas was set right after UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}}, depicting the hypothetical after-effects of a similar disaster in the UK. The music from Music/{{Vangelis}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDYmXHQSjnU makes the nuclear cemetery look even more creepy]]. Plus, it was rated "U" by the BBFC. The fact that it aired only 3 years after ''Film/{{Threads}}'' [[HarsherInHindsight doesn't help]]. |
| 489 | * In 1991, Greenpeace made a 3-minute cinema PIF titled "[[https://youtu.be/8Gd8YHYVRDM Antarctica]]" about Antarctica's freedom from violation... and it not only contains graphic images of seals getting clubbed, but it also contains a ''pile of dead and dying dolphins in which their blood flows into the ocean'', all real. This was also rated "U" by the BBFC. |
| 490 | * Greenpeace, in an ultimately successful attempt to get Franchise/{{Lego}} to break its contract with Shell, had a PSA which shows ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhbliUq0_r4 various Lego minifigs and characters from The Lego Movie drowning in oil]]''. The SofterAndSlowerCover of "[[WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie Everything Is Awesome]]" only makes it creepier. |
| 491 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ah7pYzun-s Greenpeace made this advert]] against deep sea oil fracking by showcasing several pictures of what seem to be inkblot drawings that look like penguins, only to show a small dead penguin covered in oil afterwards with someone picking the penguin's corpse up, leaving behind a black imprint. A message then says that up to 20 000 birds were killed from the Rena oil spill while it zooms out to show all the prints that were made. The usage of the Music/{{Radiohead}} song [[Music/OKComputer "No Surprises"]] takes the advert to an entirely new level of nightmare fuel, mixing in a TearJerker for added effect. |
| 492 | * In 2006, Greenpeace released a PSA called "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnqMgNkwxr4 The Ancient Forest]]" about rainforest destruction, a perfect mix of this and tearjerk. It opens with a family with the father played by Creator/AndySerkis and his family, fleeing a bulldozer destroying their home. We then see [[SarcasmMode lovely]] shots of jungles being bulldozed to the ground, overlaid with the sounds of screaming monkeys, and the voice of ''Creator/EwanMcGregor'' explaining how huge amounts of rainforest-as big as a ''soccer field''-is cut down. |
| 493 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzcGFUsL4HM This one]] is understated and yet quietly terrifying, showing the world pretty much ''drowning'' with nothing more than the sound of heavy breathing. NothingIsScarier indeed. |
| 494 | * Creator/AardmanAnimations and Greenpeace recently teamed up to make the short [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQB4RAZVMf4 Turtle Journey]], which starts out as a cute short with ABoyAGirlAndABabyFamily of sea turtles taking a road trip (well, sea trip) home as they say goodbye to their grandparents after a visit to their home. However, it soon delves into unsettling as we see oil getting drilled out in the background, from which the baby catches an oil drop with their tongue much to the mum's notice and protest. Then when they get home, they notice their neighborhood empty. The mum is about to get into the house when the camera the girl is recording their trip with starts to glitch and we see their home getting wrecked. Cut to the family without their mum, confirming she didn't make it. [[TearJerker The family can only sob as the baby turtle asks where mummy is]]. |
| 495 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Uxaw6YoRw&ab_channel=GreenpeaceAustraliaPacific This one from Greenpeace in Australia]] shows a group of friends drinking Coca-Cola at the beach. All is good until we see a dead seagull plummeting to the ground, and the happy music comes to an abrupt stop. We then see more dead seagulls falling to the ground, and we even see a clip of a child looking at one of the seagull carcasses, wondering what happened to it. |
| 496 | [[/folder]] |
| 497 | [[folder:''Smokey Bear'']] |
| 498 | Being the longest-running public service advertising campaign in US history, Smokey Bear has spent 75 years warnings us about the dangers of forest fires. While some [=PSAs=] and posters featuring the character are usually lighthearted, considering [[DarkAndTroubledPast the character and his real-life counterpart being survivors of forest fires during their childhood]], it's understandable why sometimes, Smokey and the US Forest Service have pulled no punches on more than a few occasions. |
| 499 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ7OxEKac4M This]] vintage Smokey Bear commercial from 1973, for a split-second near the end, is a very unsettling sight. For those who'd rather not watch, we slowly move in on Joanna Cassidy's face as she's talking about forest fire prevention with an impressive KubrickStare on her face, and then she peels off her skin disguise to reveal a poorly made Smokey underneath, explaining that he thought this was the best way to get our attention. The [[GenuineHumanHide ghastly appearance]] of fake-Joanna's empty face as it slides back is pretty unforgettable, and so is Smokey. In fact, good luck doing so when you go to sleep tonight. Some have called this PSA the scariest one ever. |
| 500 | -->'''Smokey Bear:''' ''(chuckles)'' If you knew it was me, would you have listened? |
| 501 | :: : The ending was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqJ6vWSUJOg redone in 1980]], where Smokey removing his Joanna Cassidy mask is less scary and more natural, and Smokey himself is more friendly and cuddly-looking. |
| 502 | * A different, but significantly more grim Smokey Bear one is set in the far future. A grandfather is walking with his granddaughter in a world where people let forests burn. [[GaiasLament Then the birds died. The air became unfit to breathe, and it's implied the human race is headed for extinction.]] It then zooms out to show the grandfather and girl in gas masks, accompanied by a spooky breathing noise. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH_MW0Bi7L4 Watch and be scared.]] |
| 503 | * Smokey himself didn't appear in this one either, but [[https://youtu.be/0oOUZ-YLH-o a 1969 PSA from that campaign]] aired well into TheSeventies. The narrator mentions that in the time it takes to grow a mature tree (in this case, a ponderosa pine) America has undergone 100 years of history. The camera slowly pans from the base of the tree to the crown, while [[ProgressiveEraMontage historical sound-bites play]]. Suddenly a careless match drops from the crown to the needles below; the narrator admonishes that now, in "a flash" that century will be wiped out so thoroughly [[GaiasLament "even the birds won't come anymore."]] |
| 504 | * Even scarier than the Joanna Cassidy one is [[https://youtu.be/vAQ8yPjDoPM Rita Raccoon]], which features poorly and creepily animated forest animals singing about not starting fires in the forest. Sorry, Rita. We'd rather ''not'' think of you and your nightmarish face. |
| 505 | * The short but absolutely not sweet "Eye" begins with footage of a forest fire. It then starts slowly zooming out, and we see that the fire is in (the live-action) Smokey's right eye. Once we completely zoom out to Smokey's whole face, he says, in a ''very'' deep and creepy voice, "[[https://youtu.be/dUx3LgOERUI Only... you.]]" What makes it worse is that as the camera zooms out, Smokey himself sheds a tear, due to his and many other of his forest friends' home being gone. The scene of Smokey shedding a tear would later be reused in a 1982 PSA featuring footage from Creator/{{Disney}}'s ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3U_JB_jDE but dubbed over.]] |
| 506 | * And here's a 1984 PSA from the USDA Forest Service, featuring a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ8zqkxUkPA paper doll chain of a family]] igniting, illustrating how wildfires can easily spread from forests to nearby communities. The music doesn't help wonders, as do the narrator's words: |
| 507 | --> '''Narrator:''' More and more families are moving closer and closer to our forests. That's why if you're careless with fire in the forest, you can burn a lot more than trees. |
| 508 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxTEL9xx93U&ab_channel=SmokeyBear "America the Ugly"]] shows the US Continent made out of painted matches. We then see a match violently burning the whole continent while we get to see the flames plundering into the camera. This teaches us that if we are one second careless with a match, then "America the Beautiful" becomes "America the Ugly". The music doesn't help wonders. |
| 509 | * Another Smokey Bear PSA from 1980 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXIJIAAQFSk titled "Painted Matches"]] shows five illustrated matches depicting things related to forests and nearby areas (a pond with trees, two birds, a nearby barn with a flock of sheep, a buck and doe, and a purple flower respectively) getting caught on fire. The only sound heard is birds chirping and audio of trees burning. The illustrations for the matches are now faded once the fire is burned out. |
| 510 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGY23scaVfI A shorter ad from 1974 "Matchbook"]] only shows a hand holding a tiny book shaped like a match box. It gets opened up to reveal seven humans shaped like matches. |
| 511 | --> '''Narrator:''' Matches don't start forest fires. People do, think before you strike. |
| 512 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URSPnNIthRU A rare Smokey Bear ad from 1974 titled "Terrifying Sound"]] has audio of sirens and voices of fire fighters handling a forest fire played over footage of a beautiful forest (such as lakes, trees, and a bird's nest). |
| 513 | --> '''Narrator:''' The most terrifying sound in the forest doesn't come from timber wolves, or mountain lions, or owls, or eagles, or elk. The most terrifying sound in the forest comes from man. Any man who's careless with fire. Please of all the sounds in the forest, don't let this be one of them. |
| 514 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQC41TIl9qA&ab_channel=SmokeyBear Another one from Smokey in 1976]] shows footage of a horrific forest fire while a narrator tells us that 9 out of 10 forest fires are caused by little fires, such as matches (we see a kid throwing a match on the grass), cigarettes (we see a hitchhiker dropping his cigarette near a log), campfires (we see a car driving away, forgetting to put the campfire out), and trash fires (we see a man walking away from a trash fire). The narrator then says that if you've been watching this commercial, you know who causes little fires. |
| 515 | * Compared to other Smokey Bear commercials, the 1973 animated ad [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaboOQ8ZUGk titled "Emptiness"]] enters TearJerker territory [[NothingIsScarier with an ominous tone]] (no music, Smokey's voice echoing, and the forest fire being represented by burned paper). The ad features Smokey standing at a now burned down forest. He tells the viewers about how beautiful this place once was complete with Smokey reminiscing about the forest (such as a river that had the best fish around, a nice picnic and camping area, and a forest that was once filled with love and life). Then man happened and got careless with fire. After he finishes reminiscing, he urges the viewers to "Think before they strike" and "The forest won't be back in our lifetime either". It's ominious due to [[WhiteVoidRoom being set inside a white background]] and Smokey's face is mostly obscured until the very end. |
| 516 | -->'''Smokey:''' It's all gone now, and it won't be back in our lifetime either. So '''think''' before you strike, put the life out of your campfires. '''Before the campfires put the life out of the forest'''. |
| 517 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhsN7lUMZoA "Matchsticks"]] asks the viewer "What can you create with ten sticks?" The sticks them arrange themselves into various plants and animals while an OminousMusicBoxTune plays... and goes silent when it asks "What can you destroy with just one?" |
| 518 | [[/folder]] |
| 519 | [[folder:Miscellaneous]] |
| 520 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjVW6roRs-w "No pressure!"]] A failed attempt at BlackComedy, this short advertisement film for reducing carbon is just unsettling. It has people getting blown up for refusing to reduce carbon, including ''children''. And not in a cartoony sort of way either, but in a [[YourHeadAsplode realistically bloody and graphic manner]], complete with visible organ pieces. The campaign got ''massive'' critical backlash for its realistic violence, not least from other campaign groups. [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Pretty strong meat there from]] Creator/RichardCurtis. Yes, ''[[Film/FourWeddingsAndAFuneral the]]'' [[Series/TheVicarOfDibley Richard]] [[Film/NottingHill Curtis]]. Would you have thought that he of all people would be capable of making something as horrifying as this? |
| 521 | * There used to be a GreenAesop ad that aired on Creator/CartoonNetwork in the US very early in the morning, usually not long after the channel had changed from Creator/AdultSwim into the kids block. It features a little girl lying in various places around her room while images of various environmental problems flash across the room, things like destroyed forests, toxic waste, and polluted rivers. All of this happens while creepy children's music plays in the background. At the end she sits up and asks you how the world is going to be when she grows up. Watch it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRhFIuK6r-Y here]]. |
| 522 | * More mild than most examples here, but the Tennessee Valley Authority's [=EnergyRight=].com commercials. [[https://youtu.be/I9BNlFfFkJs The "Wasted Kilowatts" campaign]] has creepy men in black body suits crawling around your basement, your attic, [[ParanoiaFuel your fridge]]... |
| 523 | * Those web [=PSA=]s by the Environmental Protection Agency depicting a whitewash paint, apparently with lead, being poured in [[https://youtu.be/AO-ACEclsyI cereal]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZdv_7G7qpo a glass milk bottle]], or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qhYRWUN47s a baby's juice bottle]]. |
| 524 | * Though not contracted nor paid for by the organization itself, some advertising agency wound up sending the World Wildlife Fund into issuing public apologies for [[http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2009/09/911-was-nothing-according-to-new-wwf-ad.html this ad idea]]. It pushes all the wrong buttons by comparing the death toll of the September 11th terrorist attack to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, complete with a terrifying image of several airliners flying right into the New York skyline. |
| 525 | * There was a disturbing anti-pollution PSA that aired in the USA in the early 1990s. A typical family is sitting around their living room while the kids watch cartoons on television. Without warning, a hazmat team enters and dumps oil everywhere: in the fish tank, on the TV, on the family... and the family ''just sits there'', zombielike, and lets it happen. Then an ominous-sounding narrator asks the viewer if he or she would willingly let something like that happen in ''their'' home. |
| 526 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrIaPP2cU9E Planestupid.com]] showcased how an average UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an flight produces the weight of an adult polar bear in greenhouse gases for every passenger by depicting actual polar bears falling from the sky to their deaths, with nary a GoryDiscretionShot in sight. That fact that they're falling into a seemingly abandoned city doesn't help matters. It was so gory that it was only shown before films with at least a 15 rating in UK cinemas. |
| 527 | * Sometime in the early 21st century, the Ad Council released [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwKDxHM88HY an ad]] for a website about global warming. It features a man standing on some train tracks as a train approaches in the distance. He talks about how experts say the long term effects of climate change could become irreversible in the next 30 years. "30 years?", he scoffs. "That won't affect me." He steps off the tracks, revealing a little girl standing behind him as the train closes in. |
| 528 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNCUjawjBEQ A similarly jarring ad]] as the one above shows two parents taking their children for a drive while mournful music plays. It ends with the parents dumping their crying children in a wasteland of ash and smoke, then driving off. We even get to watch from the backseat of the car as the parents drive away. |
| 529 | * "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P8dphfnbp0 Tick]]". Ominous warnings are even more potent (or annoying) when delivered by 8-year-olds. |
| 530 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wR_erp_-SE This 2003 ad from the Carbon Trust]], in which energy wastage is depicted as blood seeping out of office appliances. The fact that it occurs in a dark room with an ominous soundtrack makes it even more disturbing. |
| 531 | * There's a Keep Britain Tidy (formerly known as Tidy Britain Group) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMIU1trg9-A PIF]] that has a massive CruelTwistEnding. The camera pans through the streets of London as we witness various people littering -- throwing unfinished chip bags on the ground, leaving glass bottles on concrete, etc. We rewind as the sequence plays again with the people dishing out excuses for what they do. The payoff doesn't come until at the end, where we see a little girl dragging a stick against some wires connected to the concrete and accidentally tipping the glass bottle over as she falls and cuts herself. |
| 532 | --> '''Narrator:''' Everyone's got an excuse. What's yours? |
| 533 | * [[https://youtu.be/Bm_UsPoykYQ This Friends of the Earth advert.]] It's just a slow shot of the Earth appearing and then suddenly disappearing, but [[NothingIsScarier either way]], you'll never hear "All Things Bright and Beautiful" in the same way again. For the curious, it replaces "The Lord God made them all" with "'''''Oh God, we killed them all'''''". |
| 534 | * Friends of the Earth also made [[http://youtu.be/Z4m1X4bP5pI this]] PIF with a toilet overflowing with ''blood''. Make all the period jokes you want; it's still creepy. |
| 535 | --> '''Creator/JonathanPryce:''' Mahogany is murder. Don't buy it. |
| 536 | * Also from Friends of the Earth is [[https://youtu.be/OnJoQv5vUQ4 this cinematic ad]]. Fauré's "Requiem" (a haunting orchestral piece with choir accompaniment, originally written as a funeral mass) can be heard as a narrator talks about the indigenous people being forced from their homes by the destruction of the rainforests, illustrated via a newly sharpened ax swinging at human legs (replaced by trees at the last second). The narrator warns that even if you the viewer don't care for the plight of these tribes, you should be concerned because deforestation contributes to climate change, which threatens everyone. At this point the ax swings towards the viewer, which must have been disturbing to see on a movie screen. |
| 537 | * [[https://vimeo.com/247374174 This PSA from We Care About New York]] has shots of people littering between scenes of rats crawling in the sewers, set to some creepy music. At the end, the city's skyline is filled with rats. Did we mention this was made by Creator/DavidLynch? |
| 538 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDDVYhLKmaQ Another nightmarish ad from Keep Britain Tidy]] is in the same vein as the one above. It depicts rats crawling around, and explains that the more litter people drop, the more rats breed. It ends with a grotesque shot of rats on ''a family's bed''. The ominous music and ScareChord at the end don't help. |
| 539 | -->"How close do we have to get before you stop dropping litter?" |
| 540 | * Thames Television has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbCqud3AB-s two]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JxTJmkq5cs ads]] about not littering -- one concerning how litter can kill wildlife, and one about the nasty things rats eat. Both are equally harrowing. |
| 541 | * [[https://youtu.be/Q43scioRNiU This 1990]] PSA from the Environmental Defense Fund and the Ad Council features images of the planet and people and animals doing happy-looking things, set to Music/WillieNelson's cover of "SoundtrackDissonance/WhatAWonderfulWorld". The commercial ends with a shot of the Earth from space, only for a pair of giant hands to crumple it up like a piece of paper as the music abruptly stops and then throws it on the ground, with the tagline, "If You're Not Recycling, You're Throwing It All Away". There are two shorter versions of the ad which only feature the shot of the Earth and the giant hands crumpling it up, which makes the ad even scarier. |
| 542 | * [[https://youtu.be/owMTTmOQ66Y This]] UsefulNotes/{{Brazil}}ian PSA for saving the rainforest features a Tribe member having his hair buzzed off. |
| 543 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRuIE5MRrLM This 2008 ad]] from Saving Gaia, a UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}}an green initiative owned by the nation's public broadcaster. It features a rather creepy-looking mannequin (representing the Earth) being poured on with tar (water pollution); tortured with smoke, fog, and haze (air pollution); and cut open by a chainsaw (deforestation). The ad takes a lighter turn when the mannequin transforms into a real child. The cheery music makes it all the less creepy. It was deemed too violent to be shown on TV, but it had to be toned down instead of being pulled from TV. |
| 544 | * In the wake of the 2019 UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} bushfire season, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGCUOUs6u2c a new ad campaign was launched]], featuring a little girl caught in a chain-link fence while two firemen struggle to free her as the blaze approaches, a couple veering off the road to avoid the flames engulfing the route ahead, and a sobbing teenager being forced into a car by his father, their dog unable to join them due to the fire. |
| 545 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmftUNKT2gA&ab_channel=rocketraccoon19 This horrifying 1994 Chilean forest fire ad]] from CONAF looks like it came from the bounds of hell. In this one, we see a bald man with demon eyes shaking and roaring while we see him in a gas mask while we also see an empty place with dead trees and scarecrows with gas masks on them, etc. We also get to see closeups of his eyes, which are definitely unsettling. The scary music doesn't help at all. |
| 546 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq6CmJnEtSM Another one was made in the same year.]] It starts off with people formed like a tree in a forest. The people suddenly open their eyes and do some dance moves and gestures as if they were summoning a demon as the forest starts burning violently. There is also a shot of three toddlers in a nest, putting their hands up to the camera as the music turns even scarier. The woman singing in the BackgroundMusic also sounds like she's crying near the end of the PSA. |
| 547 | ---> '''Tagline:''' All forest fires are man-made. |
| 548 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soztSYWrTmw&ab_channel=easportsbig899 This 1990 ad from Friends Of The Earth]] about acid rain. It shows a billboard make of litmus paper telling us that if acid rain is pouring down, the paper will turn red. Sure enough, the paper slowly turns blood-red, all while people go about their daily commute, with "Rhythm Of The Rain" playing in the background. The slow transformation of the paper turning to red makes this PSA all the more eerie. |
| 549 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtXwEb0LSqo This one from the Phillipines]] starts out cute enough, with a rendition of a local {{nursery rhyme}} about vegetables. But it takes a twist when the first chorus begins. The vegetables start to look like they've been filled with ink. Then near the end of the song, the river behind the farm is polluted, there are landfills, and the tree next to the farm is dead, and the vegetables are all sick. They then pass out and are placed in a garbage bag. |
| 550 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW8YTG8CvNA This 1993 PSA from Hong Kong]] concerning the water pollution in the country starts with a family and their relatives and friends attending a dinner party in a fancy restaurant. Everyone gathers at the dining table, and they are served with a plate of steamed fish. As soon as the fish is cut, suddenly [[NauseaFuel black lumps that appear to be industrial waste start oozing out of the fish]], [[SickAndWrong and everyone is shocked and disgusted by what they see]]. The music becomes more sinister with a synthesized shriek, and the narrator explains that every day 2 million tonnes of industrial and sewage waste float into Hong Kong waters. The narrator then urges the viewer with a call to action, or the consequences will be [[StealthPun hard to swallow]], capped off with a LastNoteNightmare. |
| 551 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7bptJaVyv4 A PSA from Finland made in 2000]] pictures an anonymous man who explains with a distorted voice how he buries toxic waste like batteries, medicine, and motor oil, before putting sand on top ("MotherNature takes care of everything"). When summing up his deeds he uses his fingers, revealing all ''[[ExtraDigits six]]'' of them. |
| 552 | * UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}'s ad Council released [[https://youtu.be/Pdq9zLa_ync?t=381 This PSA]] warning that global warming threatens to erode 80% of the world's beaches, while ominous music plays as two figures sit motionless at the beach. [[spoiler: Viewers may or may not realize that they are sand sculptures right away, making it quite the shock when the larger one suddenly crumbles to the ground.]] |
| 553 | * [[https://www.reddit.com/r/morbidlybeautiful/comments/b5fioh/statement_regarding_single_use_plastics/ This online ad by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society]] shows a sea turtle suffocating with a plastic bag over its head and the tagline, "The plastic you use once tortures the oceans forever." |
| 554 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlFD0Zyl_f0 This]] Texas Department of Transporation PSA starts off [[NothingIsScarier unassuming]] with a truck driving down a highway as the driver throws out some garbage. The narrator chimes in with something to think about when throwing trash on Texas highways. [[OhCrap Cue a B-17 bomber aircraft slowly looming over the horizon]] as the most menacing [[ScareChord music sting plays]]. The narrator's continued monologues coupled with the very intentful murmurings of the bomber pilot further cements in any child watching that if they ever litter while out on the road, [[ParanoiaFuel the Air Force will hunt them down.]] |
| 555 | -->"Somebody up there's gonna be watching(...)and you don't want to mess with the Texas Confederate Air Force. So [[TitleDrop don't mess with Texas.]]" |
| 556 | -->''"[[KilledOffScreen Bombs away.]]"'' |
| 557 | [[/folder]] |
| 558 | !! Wildlife |
| 559 | Between AnimalTesting, {{Evil Poacher}}s, and other such threats, it's clear that domestic animals are definitely not the only victims of mankind's bastardry. |
| 560 | [[folder:''PETA'']] |
| 561 | PETA has has been OvershadowedByControversy time and time again for its... intense practices, so it stands to reason that it won't pull its punches with its ads, that's for sure. |
| 562 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KUwib-rGis "Silent Scream"]] actually compares preparing fish for cooking to domestic violence, school bullying, and mugging ''in a serious tone'', and all are played straight in a gruesome way. If those don't scare you, the silently screaming CGI fish might. On that note, it goes into {{Narm}} territory when human abuse is compared to a fish being prepared to be eaten at a restaurant. A decent point of comparison would be ''Animation/{{Padak}}'', but the fish there were ''actually'' being prepared alive. |
| 563 | * [[https://vimeo.com/488740280 "Old McDonald"]], filmed in UsefulNotes/{{Germany}}, features a young girl outside meeting a cow while the titular song is sung in the background. The cow is then shot in the head and the girl reacts in shock. Pictures of dead and dying cows flash onscreen. The sky darkens as a second building appears. The girl then meets a pig, which suffers the same fate as the cows. The sky now looks very gray and ominous. The girl then meets some chickens, who once again die in a gruesome fashion. Whenever the "everywhere an x-x" line is sung, the animal sounds are replaced with slashing sounds, and the animals are crying out in anguish. We then cut to the inside of the slaughterhouse, where the butcher is conducting a choir of nervous children in animal costumes singing the titular song. The girl leads a small girl in a chicken costume away once the group leaves, while the costumed girl finishes the song in a faded, haunting tone. |
| 564 | * PETA 2 has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFUH8SLeld8 a PIF]] (NSFW) titled ''Fur is Dead'' which is just a collage of animals dying with text backgrounds reading things like "foxes are dead", "dogs are dead", "rabbits are dead", etc. |
| 565 | * PETA 2 also did an ad starring Noah Cyrus, the sister of Music/MileyCyrus, which targets animal dissection. It features a nude Noah on a dissection table ''with her chest vivisected, exposing her internal organs''. Check it out [[http://www.peta2.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/noah-cyrus-dissectionkills-psa.jpg here]], if you dare. The fact that Noah was underage at the time makes it worse. |
| 566 | * The entirety of the PIF [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_UpyY2MIOc "If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls, Everyone Would Be Vegetarian"]] (NSFW), narrated by Music/PaulMcCartney. For a staggering 13 minutes, we are treated to extremely graphic and nightmarish footage of the poor, nauseating conditions of slaughterhouses, live-animal transport, fisheries, and factory farms that many animals are subject to, all of which makes slaughterhouses look like ''concentration camps for animals''. [[{{Squick}} It most]] ''[[{{Squick}} definitely]]'' [[{{Squick}} shouldn't be watched before eating or sleeping.]] |
| 567 | * The UsefulNotes/{{Singapore}}an branch of PETA made [[https://youtu.be/2kbNALzULA8 This]] PSA (NSFW) about Angora rabbit fur. It features a bunch of people screaming from being hot-waxed and ends with an Angora bunny screaming in pain as its fur is ripped from its body. [[note]]Some NightmareRetardant in the fact that most, if not all Angora bunnies have their fur collected not by waxing but by either shearing like a sheep or poodle or simply brushing it out, as it sheds like any other animal does.[[/note]] Oh, and it shows the poor hare stripped, showing its skin. |
| 568 | * On a similar note and much like the "Boiled Bear" PIF below, there's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFrhPRme1iM this PSA]]. It's literally just a half-minute of a pig ''screaming in agony and terror'' [[NothingIsScarier without any shown footage]], with white text on a black background slowly saying "[[HellIsThatNoise This is what hell sounds like]]. This is happening right now. [[WhamLine These are actual recordings from inside a factory farm.]] [[AnAesop Go vegan.]]" They also did [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE250MyHVx0 a similar PSA]] with audio of an elephant in a circus-training facility. |
| 569 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8W400o8xJY This horrifying ad from PETA2]] shows a man ''getting stabbed in the nose with a hot stick''. Another then puts a string through the hole of the nose while we hear the victim's painful screams. We're told that this actually happens to hundreds of bears every year, which cuts to a bear also suffering the same pain as the man. |
| 570 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WOkBhjxy4Y&ab_channel=rocketraccoon19 This one from 2002]] shows a man ''clubbing a woman to death in public'' fully shown on-screen, then stealing her fur coat afterward. Even worse? No one stops this from happening, with everyone just walking away from the incident like nothing happened. |
| 571 | --> '''Tagline:''' What if you were killed for your coat? |
| 572 | * PETA made [[https://www.peta.org/videos/runway-reversal/ a public service announcement]] about wearing animal skins, featurinf a {{fashion show}} where anthropomorphic foxes and seals are wearing outfits made from GenuineHumanHide. Things take a turn for the worse as we then head inside the dressing room, where a terrified human girl is inside a cage, implying that she’ll eventually be made into clothing. |
| 573 | * [[https://youtu.be/487PR8Eloh8 Red River Farm]] by PETA manages to be a blend of NightmareFuel, BlackComedy, AND TearJerker all at once. The ad-featuring Film/HarryPotter's Creator/JessieCave looks like a cute Creator/JimHenson-type setup with cute animal puppets (a sheep, a cow, a chicken, and a snake) [[LyricalDissonance singing a cute little song about the cruelty towards animals in the fashion industry]]. |
| 574 | [[/folder]] |
| 575 | [[folder:Miscellaneous]] |
| 576 | * This [[https://youtu.be/0pUfyRTA5P0 anti-fox hunting film]] (NSFW) from Britain was produced by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). It is shot from the perspective of a fox being chased. We see what it sees as it makes its way through the countryside, almost getting hit by a car while dashing across a road. We never see the hunters or their dogs, but their distorted sounds can be heard in the background. Eventually the exhausted fox tries to hide, only to be forced into the open by its unseen pursuers, leading to a terrifying cacophony of barks and whimpers as the camera shakes violently, followed by an eerie silence. The clear implication is that the fox was viciously torn apart by the hunting dogs. The ad ends with a short rapid-fire montage of very gruesome photos taken from hunts ''[[SickeningCrunch as a bunch of flesh-crunching noises are heard]]'', followed by [[SensoryAbuse a loud]] ScareChord (the last being a shot of ''a real, shredded fox carcass'') before ending with text urging viewers to contact their MP in support of the fox hunting ban. |
| 577 | * IFAW also made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PaE40yxlbo this]] very [[BlackComedy sickly humorous]] ad against seal clubbing that parodied a tourism commercial for Canada. It starts out alright and maybe even a bit cheesy, showing images associated with Canada, until you get to the footage of people clubbing baby seals. |
| 578 | * Once in UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}}, there was a campaign called "Ban Snares" by Advocates for Animals, and the organization came up with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w78c-vjUris these]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_-qRFy7o1Y three]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wmcxlCMAX8 ads]], consisting of snares in [[BlankWhiteVoid a white background]]. The [[SilenceIsGolden sil]][[NothingIsScarier ence]] in all of these ads only worsens the experience. |
| 579 | * A theatrical PIF called "Smile" produced by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, currently known as Cruelty Free International, starts off looking like an ordinary commercial for cosmetics, featuring a woman singing the song "Smile" for ''Film/ModernTimes''. However, that proves not to be the case as it soon starts showing the face of model Angie Hill becoming scarred as she applies makeup (mirroring the injuries experienced by animals used for cosmetics testing). At the end, she lets out a horrifying, electronic scream with her head close up and the screen fading to black. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaTcH9bd9LI It will scar you for life.]] Narrated by Creator/JudiDench. |
| 580 | -->'''Narrator:''' Every year, thousands of other animals suffer this ugly pain in the name of beauty. Please don't use cosmetics tested in this way. |
| 581 | ** An [[http://youtu.be/Brx2ipfmDec alternate version]] exists that uses the song "The Thinner the Air" by the Music/CocteauTwins. The bittersweet, haunting atmosphere of that song adds a [[TearJerker new feeling]] to the horror of the PIF. |
| 582 | * The UK's Respect for Animals (formerly Lynx) has made its stance on [[FurAndLoathing the fur trade]] ''very'' clear: |
| 583 | ** [[http://youtu.be/8FX-VnhX24Q "Catwalk" ]] is an 18-certificate PIF in which a group of supermodels walk down the catwalk in their fancy new dresses, while the audience (including Creator/PaulReubens) is cheering and taking photos, [[BloodyHorror when the dresses]] [[MoodWhiplash suddenly seem to explode in animal blood]], as the women continue to walk down the catwalk as if nothing is happening while the audience is screaming and covered in blood, complete with the upbeat music in the background turning more scary and tense. The PIF ends with the {{slogan}}: ''It takes 40 dumb animals to make a fur coat. But only one to wear it.''\ |
| 584 | Fun fact: according to uploader [=easportsbig899=] on his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBCA_a9snok&t=13m36s "Top 10 Controversial PIFs"]], this PIF was originally intended to be used by Greenpeace, but they disowned it due to the graphic content. Think about that: Greenpeace, creators of many disturbing [=PIFs=] (see also the "Environment" section), [[EveryoneHasStandards didn't want to use this ad]]. Also, originally the ending slogan said "It takes 40 dumb ''bitches'' to make a fur coat. But only one to wear it," but it was changed to "dumb animals" instead (since it can come across as derogatory towards women). |
| 585 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0yrP5HN0X0 "Scavengers"]] is easily the worst, as it features a bunch of rich snobs attending a fashion show and then pulling open a fur coat to reveal it to be absolutely infested with [[MessyMaggots slimy, repulsive flies and maggots]]. The startling synth cords only add to the terror, and the makers must have been serious gore lovers to produce such a nasty PIF. It's simply disgusting to watch. Barf bags at the ready, everyone. The narration at the end says, "When animals are killed for fur, two types of scavengers move in. The only difference is the flies don't know any better."[[note]]In reality, this is not the case. A fly ''could'' probably tell the difference between a fur coat and a carcass because the former has no flesh on it. This means that if there is no flesh means no food, and thus no smell to attract flies.[[/note]] |
| 586 | ** Lynx also commissioned the short film ''Skinned'', which was eventually shortened to a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfRFPWbzj18 normal format]] (the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD7tzrIXOy0 official version]] lasts ''3 minutes'' long). A woman is shown heading to a fancy restaurant while garnishing herself in a fur suit, but while on her journey it seems to be a bit tight on her. But when she arrives and is about to eat, it gets ''really'' tight on her as the music (a TripHop beat with an operatic woman singing, which grows more and more dramatic) intensifies, and eventually, an entire group of people have to help get it off her. We fade out, fade back onto the woman's disgusted face, and then zoom in on a ''skinless fox'' wrapped around her. Thankfully, [[NightmareRetardant it doesn't seem to be a real dead fox.]] |
| 587 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr1_ksdJtmQ This one from 1998]] directed by Tony Kaye shows a woman buying a fur coat. Except interrupting the shots of her are shots of a man skinning an animal, and we get to see it all in graphic detail. It ends with the tagline "Fur looks great... until you open your eyes." |
| 588 | * A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlV8HKi2-4Q 1980s PIF]] by the League Against Cruel Sports starts with a man mounting his horse for a fox hunt, as a child sings the old song "A Hunting We Will Go". As the man rides, the child's voice is drowned out by an ominous choir singing something resembling "O Fortuna" from ''Music/CarminaBurana''. The sky turns dark and the hunter's face changes to a crazed expression as text states that fox hunting doesn't actually control the fox population, but rather encourages them to breed for the purpose of being hunted. These foxes, says the ad, are chased to exhaustion and then torn apart by dogs bred specifically to move slower and prolong the chase. As the ad ends, we see the hunter has become a PsychopathicManchild riding an adult-sized rocking horse in an eerily lit room. The children's song plays again, [[IronicNurseryTune not sounding nearly as cute]]. |
| 589 | * In December 2014, League Against Cruel Sports created [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtKw7V7hGok this horrific cinema PIF]]. It begins with a woman holding her baby. At first, you're like "Oh, that's cute, but how does this relate to fox hunting?" Then, she looks out her door, and she and the baby have horrified reactions. The woman proceeds to put her crying baby into the crib, locks the house, and then runs for her life out in the woods. And at this point, you realize that ''she'' is meant to represent the fox. The music proceeds to tense more and more as she tries to hide, only for her to be attacked, crying and panicking. The camera cuts to her exhausted, horrified face, [[GoryDiscretionShot then fades out, thus preventing the viewers from seeing her agonizing death.]] And ''then'', it proceeds to fade back to the baby in his crib, who is silently crying, now realizing that his mother will probably never come back. "What if it was you", indeed. |
| 590 | * Another ad by League Against Cruel Sports, titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zm8_9-NkI4 The Silent Enemy]]" features a jogger running in the forest before being caught by a snare, with a narrator describing the way snares slowly and painfully kill as the jogger slowly chokes to death. |
| 591 | * The charity Tusk Force ran [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD44WPqHsTc a nightmarish PIF for cinemas]] featuring the sound of a bear being beaten and then boiled alive, accompanied by a recipe instructing viewers on how to do it at home. [[NothingIsScarier We're not shown any footage]], all we see is the recipe, but the sound of the bear suffering an unimaginably agonizing death will stay with you for a while, as will the disquieting fact that "bears are considered a gourmet food in the Far East, despite the fact that they are dangerously close to extinction." |
| 592 | * Another [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsl-B88YUH0 harrowing ad]] concerning bears shows and discusses what happens to real bears captured and made to dance or perform for entertainment or have their body parts be used to make medicine or food but on a teddy bear. Not only is it sick to see a beloved toy get ripped apart so brutally, have its paws chopped off, and have a hook driven through its nose, the teddy even sheds a SingleTear. |
| 593 | * The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has produced some notorious [=PIF=]s to warn viewers about the fate of certain endangered species. |
| 594 | ** One PIF shown in cinemas in the early '90s, urged viewers to boycott Taiwanese goods. It opens with footage of white rhinos on a television screen (UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} is one of the countries that produces electronics). As the television rotates, [[JumpScare a gunshot is heard]] and blood begins pouring out of the back of the television. The voice-over then explains, over the sound of rhinos being slaughtered, that Taiwan is the only country that still trades in poached rhino parts. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArwfCd6Sq1c Watch it here]], if you have the stomach for it. |
| 595 | -->''"Tell Taiwan... you don't want the rhino to die."'' |
| 596 | ** The EIA also did [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGPzpY2K-GY a similar PIF about tigers]], in which a tiger is shut in a box which then has swords pushed into it, like some sort of magic trick. Blood seeps out of the holes and the voice-over tells us how tigers in UsefulNotes/{{India}} are under threat from industry and habitat loss. The box is then opened, [[NothingIsScarier but the tiger is gone and the inside is painted with its blood]]. The uploader, PIF connoisseur [=easportsbig899=], summed it up pretty well: "Rated 15 because this is some messed-up shit." |
| 597 | -->''"So tell the Indian government today, you don't want the tiger to disappear... '''tomorrow'''."'' |
| 598 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHyDeYklowA Yet another EIA PIF]] features a chimpanzee witnessing various acts of cruelty and mistreatment towards animals, including a rhino with a nasty wound on its side and what appears to be dolphins being slaughtered as the water [[BloodIsSquickerInWater runs red with blood]], set to [[Film/NaturalBornKillers "Burn"]] by Music/NineInchNails. This footage appears to be real and the chimp's reactions are realistic and well-acted for an animal. Eventually, the chimp gets fed up with it all and has a breakdown, ending in it pulling out a revolver and [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou shooting the screen]]. It's very shocking and disturbing and well deserves the 18 rating the BBFC gave it. |
| 599 | * Creator/AnthonyHopkins narrated a charity film for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, showing exactly what happens during the annual pilot whale hunt in the Faroe Islands, tone [[SoundtrackDissonance all too cheery]] compared to the eerie animated visuals of whales being harpooned and shrieking in agony. The film is very graphic but got re-rated from a PG to a U certificate in the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom (equivalent to a G stateside) [[AnimationAgeGhetto because it is a cartoon]]. (Also, the makers wanted to show it in front of the obscure family film ''When the Whales Came''.) Here's the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWgrl0377Kg video]]. |
| 600 | ** The same organization made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhMVoPQ14IE this ad]]. We're told, by Creator/JulieChristie, that dolphins are just like us. We are then told that despite this, thousands of dolphins are killed every year from tuna nets while some of the footage turns red to show bloodshed. It ends with [[HellIsThatNoise the sound of a dolphin screaming in pain]], and Julie says that [[WhamLine "they scream like us."]] |
| 601 | * UsefulNotes/{{Finland}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RbU6uCjKiw "Beautiful Greed"]] PSA from TheSeventies. It features a beautiful woman wearing a seal fur scarf. As she covers the lower half of her face with the scarf, footage of a seal being clubbed plays intermittently. She then uncovers her face to reveal that she is actually a vampire. Sweet dreams! |
| 602 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2t0u8wTows&ab_channel=easportsbig899 This 1990 ad from Humans for Animals.]] It shows a woman shedding a {{single tear}} and wiping it off while we're told that a lethal substance is sprayed into the eyes of over 3,000 rabbits, 12,000 guinea pigs are shaved with toxic irritants touching their skin, and that over 5,000 animals die every year. |
| 603 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJeR-W4X4BA&ab_channel=easportsbig899 Faith Foundation made this 1990 ad]] about poaching rhinos. It uses a machine gun to illustrate its point, showing the number of bullets it would take to wipe out the remaining western Black Rhinos in Tanzania, all while we hear unsettling African tribal music. In 2011, the western black rhino was declared extinct, which means that this ad didn't work. |
| 604 | * [[https://youtu.be/7J58V7x6GSo This one from Tusk in 1995]] shows a map of UsefulNotes/{{Africa}} zooming into [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horn_of_Africa the Horn]] while we're told that in the last 5 years, poachers have killed over 2,000 black rhinos. We then see a chainsaw cutting off the peninsula as if it were the horn of a rhino, with blood pouring out. |
| 605 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGI7FifcVWc&ab_channel=SeaShepherd This one from Australia]] shows David Field perform an act of him getting killed by an unseen thing, ending with shots of him gasping for breath while he's staring straight into the camera. Sure, it's an act, but still very unnerving. To make matters worse, the scene cuts to real video clips of dead whales being hauled up to a ship (including one with blood and guts all over the floor), as David explains his reasons for supporting Sea Shepherd. |
| 606 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue114_ghKVs This haunting PSA]] from Germany's World Society for the Protection of Animals shows a man in a dark workshop putting together a wooden bear. He starts by sawing off one of the bear's ears, followed by the claws and paw tips, and finally drills through the bear's nose. All of this is intercut with footage of a real bear going through the same torture. In the end, he finishes by putting a string through the nose, pulls it, and makes the bear "dance". A narrator then says, "Captivity, torture, or dance until death. The WSPA helps abused animals. Please help.". The camera work and distorted audio don't help. |
| 607 | ** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh844L7SZ1s alternate cut]] of the ad is arguably worse, as not only does it include slightly different shots of the man putting the wooden bear together, but also a new, brief scene of a bear being hung by its nose. |
| 608 | * [[https://youtu.be/Ot_oecsMpZE This shocking PSA]] from the Animal Peace Foundation starts off with a little girl happily skipping while she hums to herself... she is suddenly ''ran over by a car'' while attempting to cross the road, causing her supplies to fly off of her and land onto the road next to her. ''Another'' car comes and runs over her already-dead body, and then '''another''' car runs over her when it switches to a nighttime setting. It's not until we see the tagline that we actually understand what it's supposed to represent. |
| 609 | -->''"[[WhamLine Happens to us animals every day.]] And even worse."'' |
| 610 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjMzXykfbm8 "Dream"]], a beautifully animated but utterly heartwrenching PSA by the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival features four different endangered animals -- a mother rhinoceros and her calf, a pair of whales, a pelican and two baby seals -- happily enjoying their lives in their natural habitats whilst singing [[Theatre/LesMiserables "I Dreamed A Dream"]]. But when they reach the bridge, it becomes clear that these happy lives won't last, as manmade threats loom over the horizon. The mother rhino's horns are taken by poachers, the whale is harpooned by whalers, the pelican drowns in oil after an oil rig explodes and one of the baby seals is last seen about to be clubbed to death. Also, the whale and the seal both had companions before this... [[KilledOffscreen where are they?]] |
| 611 | -->'''Rhino:''' (''as her baby [[PleaseWakeUp desperately tries to help her up]]'') And still I dream he'll come to me\ |
| 612 | And we will live the years together\ |
| 613 | '''Whale:''' But there are dreams that cannot be (''sinks as another harpoon is thrown into his flesh'')\ |
| 614 | And there are storms we cannot weather\ |
| 615 | '''Pelican:''' (''struggling in the oil while the rig burns in the background'') I had a dream my life would be\ |
| 616 | So different from this hell I'm living\ |
| 617 | '''Seal:''' (''[[DespairEventHorizon resigning themself to their fate as the hunters loom over them]]'') So different now from what it seemed\ |
| 618 | Now life has killed the dream I dreamed\ |
| 619 | ''(Poacher raises his scythe [[GoryDiscretionShot as the camera pans up toward the sky]]'') |
| 620 | [[/folder]] |
| 621 | |
| 622 | !!Other / Unsorted |
| 623 | [[folder:Other]] |
| 624 | * Comedic Australian duo Henry & Aaron are perhaps best known for creating some of the most unsettling ads to hit the internet. |
| 625 | ** [[http://youtu.be/4Am7oKBD3PU This]] ad for The Central Institute of Technology in Australia. A video that's part typical college advertising, part meta-humor, part horror. A guy shows his friend around the campus by snapping his fingers and "teleporting" him around. It's super hilarious until the guy realizes he [[TeleporterAccident teleported himself through a rack of clothing]]. His friend tells him to teleport away and a scream comes from down the hall. Most horrifying is his friend's fear and horror upon realizing that he's dead. Why is he dead? Well, he teleported himself through an employee ladder! [[CrossesTheLineTwice Then again...]] |
| 626 | ** A few years later, they made [[https://youtu.be/STHpMUYeznQ this little horror]], a fake PSA for not being truant. It starts with some kids sneaking out of school and heading off to the beach, set off to a catchy indie-folk song. Then one of the girls explodes randomly, and it's revealed that they're actually on an explosive testing site, where more kids blow up. The best part is at the end where the last girl to survive is on the ground doing a SkywardScream upon realizing that all her friends are dead, as the camera zooms out to reveal a huge mushroom cloud, and just as that happens her screaming is immediately cut off. |
| 627 | * [[http://vimeo.com/7725449 This]] advertisement from Method, a company that makes ethical cleaning products that don't use chemicals that persist in the environment after their use. The PSA starts off like you would a normal Scrubbing Bubbles commercial, with saccharine singing soap suds. However, it becomes creepier when the woman comes to take a shower the next day, only to see the soap suds remaining. The PSA ends with the suds singing in cheery acapella as they watch her shower. |
| 628 | * During TheEighties, Britain faced the very real possibility of nuclear conflict. In response, the government issued the WesternAnimation/ProtectAndSurvive leaflet, which was adapted into [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yrv505R-0U a series of twenty]] short films advising citizens what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. The concept alone is scary enough, but the most disturbing part is the one that advises what to do if someone in the household dies -- place them in another room, wrap them up, and label them. |
| 629 | ** Actor Patrick Allen was chosen to narrate. His voiceover would later be described as "the calm, clipped vowels of an announcer, advising how to build shelters, avoid fallout, and wrap up your dead loved ones in polythene, bury them, and tag their bodies". (You can hear him sampled on the Music/FrankieGoesToHollywood song "Two Tribes".) |
| 630 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWx0Jz0ADOM&ab_channel=easportsbig899 This 1997 British ad]] about voting. Another announcer tells us that if you're not registered to vote, you can't have a say, all while we see a young man's mouth getting zipped up while staring at the camera. |
| 631 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fr4Oyrk_aw This one from DTI in 1999]] about Action 2000 shows a man in a dark room writing something on a piece of paper. While all this is happening, a narrator asks us what sort of person would jeopardize your job, wouldn't listen to warnings, wouldn't look into solutions, and wouldn't make one phone call to find out how to save their company from the MillenniumBug. After he asks "Is it you?", the man [[JumpScare quickly turns his head up]] to reveal ''no face.'' |
| 632 | [[/folder]] |
| 633 | ---- |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext NightmareFuel / PublicServiceAnnouncement
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
