please give me all of your advertisements gone wrong
February 8, 2022 2:33 PM   Subscribe

Remember that one (or more than one) commercial that creeped you right out? I would love to see it.

I've been haunted all over again by the commercial mentioned in this comment by eirias. It made me remember that I also have issues with this terrifyingly voiced 1991 ad.

I want more! Please share with me all of the unintentionally creepy ads you can recall. Bonus points for explaining what it is that creeps you out. If you find something like my childhood nemesis the home invader 1987 Sylvania man I will be very happy.
posted by RobinofFrocksley to Grab Bag (65 answers total) 58 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: This Toyota ad from the late '90s. The text creeped me out, and so did the fact that one of the "worse" cars mentioned in the longer version was my mom's car at the time.
posted by Seeking Direction at 2:38 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Not me personally (I think it's kind of funny) but people seem really creeped out by Puppy Monkey Baby.
posted by General Malaise at 2:42 PM on February 8, 2022 [6 favorites]


Best answer: There cannot be a list of this sort that does not include the 2009 Folgers Instant Coffee commercial that strongly implied some incestous themes to what felt like the entire internet.
posted by Grim Fridge at 2:56 PM on February 8, 2022 [29 favorites]


Best answer: A lot of people really didn't like this 80s Kinder Surprise ad.
posted by pipeski at 3:00 PM on February 8, 2022 [5 favorites]


Best answer: Oh, certainly this 1967 KFC ad or this 1969 IHOP ad.

The 1974 Public Service Messages from the New Mexico Civil Liberties Union qualify as well.
posted by eschatfische at 3:08 PM on February 8, 2022 [5 favorites]


Best answer: This ad for Dannon La Creme Yogurt is creepy on a couple of levels, but the “kid and her friend walking in on her parents’ sex game” puts it into extra special territory.
posted by holborne at 3:24 PM on February 8, 2022 [11 favorites]


Best answer: This guy has his fans, but I am not among them.
posted by box at 3:27 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: HEAD ON!
posted by dobbs at 3:35 PM on February 8, 2022 [5 favorites]


Best answer: Oh god, I am still traumatized by the Mentos nipple guy.
posted by ananci at 4:17 PM on February 8, 2022 [14 favorites]


Best answer: Jack in the Box traumatized a whole generation of children by blowing up their clown. I remember one parent of a toddler swearing he would never go there again.
posted by FencingGal at 4:18 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: There was this series of 1970s Canadian PSAs for poison, explosives, etc. (They scared me but I think they worked.)
posted by philfromhavelock at 4:23 PM on February 8, 2022 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Internet legend has it that if you watch this Japanese Kleenex commercial you'll probably get cursed.
posted by moons in june at 4:25 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: A recent example is last season’s Peloton TV ad showing a woman that seems distressed and terrified of her partner, who gifted her the bike.
posted by artificialard at 4:27 PM on February 8, 2022 [6 favorites]


Best answer: Long long man is ENTIRELY INAPPROPRIATE

Also has the best story arc of any ad ever
posted by ananci at 4:34 PM on February 8, 2022 [43 favorites]


Best answer: The newer version of Mr. Clean marches me right off into uncanny valley.
posted by rekrap at 4:37 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I don't even want to link to them here, they were so gross, but my childhood self recoiled in horror from the Aviance perfume ads from the 70s where the husband came home to his wife who had been cooking and cleaning all day and sang "Oh yeah, we're gonna have an Aviance night!" I don't think I understood them at the time but yuck.
posted by sophieblue at 4:44 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]


Best answer: This Toohey's Extra Dry (beer) ad from 2013 attracted a lot of complaints from people who considered it gross. It features a disembodied tongue making its way around a party.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 4:58 PM on February 8, 2022 [4 favorites]


Best answer: The Lamisil commercial featuring a hinged toenail. Never mind the CGI foot fungus character, toenails ought not do that. *shudder*
posted by wanderingmind at 5:09 PM on February 8, 2022 [6 favorites]


Best answer: I FEEL GREAT
posted by Mayor West at 5:18 PM on February 8, 2022 [6 favorites]


Best answer: Folgers Happy Mornings is viscerally uncomfortable.
posted by Mayor West at 5:20 PM on February 8, 2022 [9 favorites]


Best answer: The Wisk Ring Around the Collar commercials were awful not only for the nails on chalkboard catchphrase but also for the shots of guilty wives who weren’t doing their laundry well enough. These were widely criticized by feminists at the time, with some saying the men should wash their damn necks.
posted by FencingGal at 5:25 PM on February 8, 2022 [6 favorites]


Best answer: For your consideration... The Oozinator
posted by Liquidwolf at 5:32 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I only just learned about this from a podcast about, uh, Santa.
posted by Snijglau at 5:43 PM on February 8, 2022


Best answer: Wayne Gretzky had some weird Patrick Bateman energy in the freeze frame at the end of this 1982 GWG jeans ad.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:51 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: This one from Michigan Poison Control...

My leaves are full of poison
I'm in the poison book...

posted by mandolin conspiracy at 5:59 PM on February 8, 2022 [1 favorite]


I recall the spoof VW Polo ad that featured a... suicide bomber. VW threatened to sue the creators for defamation but eventually dropped it after creators made a public apology. As it's not a real ad I'm not linking it.
posted by kschang at 6:04 PM on February 8, 2022


The Folger’s incest commercial has its own fandom on Ao3, it’s that notorious.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:23 PM on February 8, 2022 [3 favorites]


Best answer: These li'l guys for Quiznos subs didn't last long. My family could not change the channel fast enough. (I liked them)
posted by wheek wheek wheek at 6:23 PM on February 8, 2022 [16 favorites]




Best answer: Denizens of the greater St. Louis area might remember the outrageously bad Dirt Cheap Liquor commercials.
posted by daisystomper at 7:37 PM on February 8, 2022 [5 favorites]


Best answer: Every time I see Method cleaning products I think about this ad with the animated bubbles harassing a naked woman in the shower.
posted by Phyllis keeps a tight rein at 7:55 PM on February 8, 2022 [5 favorites]


Best answer: Will you accept PSAs? I have never forgotten this one by War Amps. Play safe!
posted by Rora at 8:04 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I don't have a link for it (and if someone could provide one I would lose my miiiiiiiiind) but there was a gawdawful commercial for Rainbow Foods (Minnesota grocery chain) maybe 1984, 1985? It was a black screen, and then a man's gravelly voiceover: "Goooood stuff." And then a woman's sultry voiceover. "Low...prices."
"Gooooood stuff."
"Low. Prices."
"Goooooooooood stuff."
"Looow. Prices."
And then they both chuckled creepy-sexily (or at least, creepy and still somewhat sexily to my child mind that was not yet clear on what sex even was, but these voices were definitely it), and the Rainbow Foods logo came up.

This commercial screwed me up! I am half positive I made it up. But why! Curse you for asking this question.
posted by pepper bird at 8:17 PM on February 8, 2022 [4 favorites]


Best answer: Gobble Stix from the depths of the 1990s. The main kid’s nasal whine combined with the rock and roll piano, cutesy sound effects, screamy children’s chorus, and burp noises. It was an eldritch warning to our past selves: escape from this wretched timeline while you can. Did we listen? Oh no.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 8:35 PM on February 8, 2022 [2 favorites]


There was a Colgate pump toothpaste ad in the ‘80s that the music made me uncomfortable for reasons I don’t fully understand.

There was a kids’ cereal called Fruit Islands with a racist caricature mascot that I’m also not gonna look for to link to.

I’m sure there are others I have blocked from my memory.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 9:01 PM on February 8, 2022


I bought two Oozinators for my two nephews. The kids were happily oozing each other at a family bbq when this older kid blurts out "so that's how they do that in porn".
posted by james33 at 3:57 AM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Funny, this just showed up on imgur this morning; I think it fits the bill.
posted by solotoro at 6:39 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I think what caused this one to stick in my head all these years was the subterfuge of it all? It starts off like basically every 90s snack food commercial and then does a heel turn into a PSA, so I guess it's less creepy but more haunting, especially since the message has not aged particularly well.
posted by helloimjennsco at 6:51 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I would say that this one has stuck in my head because it's so half-assed, but the truth is that they bought ludicrous amounts of ad time on the local UHF stations.
posted by box at 7:41 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]




Best answer: In the late 70s/early 80s this horrible one depicting a man ogling his partner in a bedroom as she gets ready to go out.

"What are you doing?"
"Watching you"
"What are you doing?" Uncomfortable giggle.
"Watching you" Leer.
"What are you doing?" Increased discomfort.
"Watching you...."
camera pull back depicting them in a soft focus clinch with clothes beginning to be loosened.

Iirc it was for a perfume but I don't remember the name of it.

this beer ad enraged me when I saw it in the 80s. She should have turned the hose on him.
posted by brujita at 11:30 AM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: This PS2 ad for a new console variant was somebody's racist fetish that got a bunch of money behind it. I never did figure out how it got approved, it's so weird.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:44 AM on February 9, 2022


Best answer: I'm finding it impossible to locate these ads, but in around 2008, The Maids cleaning service ran these ads with the most entitled white suburban housing development-dwelling people I've ever seen that were somehow both creepy and infuriating. The first one featured this woman kneeling down to dry off her kid with a big fluffy towel, in a bathroom that is the size of my whole house. She's all stern and momlike and says that she likes the Maids because they clean on their hands and knees -- the way it should be done. The second was this young woman cooking in her enormous McMansion kitchen, as tells the camera that she likes "using" the Maids because they get all the grease and grime that builds up in her fancy-ass kitchen. "Better them than me," she simpers at the camera.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:45 PM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Apparently this man's claymation-enhanced coughing fit was quite upsetting to viewers in '89.
posted by subocoyne at 12:59 PM on February 9, 2022 [3 favorites]


Best answer: This Peter Max-inspired ad for Lowney Cherry Blossom candy appeared on Canadian TV in the 1970s. I was intrigued and horrified by the flying lips and the river of syrup.
(I know that someone has made an FPP on MeFi previously, but I can't find it now.)
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 1:13 PM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Creepy Kay Jewelers commercial
posted by extramundane at 1:54 PM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: The Axe chocolate guy is pretty creepy.
posted by jabes at 2:04 PM on February 9, 2022 [3 favorites]


Check out the blog Wacky, Wild TV Ads.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:02 PM on February 9, 2022


Best answer: The Grim Reaper ad scared me as a kid. More recently, Tourism Victoria came out with this shocker. Not sure who they thought being hunted down by a creepy man would appeal to.
posted by Kris10_b at 3:42 PM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]


See that yogurt ad with Mom and Dad roleplaying always made me laugh. Especially Mom's flat "you're home early" delivery. She worked really hard to set that all up, and now her bratty preteen is home early for no reason. Damn kids.

Good for the parents for a having a healthy sex life.

But maybe next time actually send the kid out of town first.
posted by emjaybee at 4:17 PM on February 9, 2022


People were both confused and creeped out by the Trivago guy.
posted by lunasol at 5:08 PM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]


I FEEL GREAT

Worth mentioning this was not a real commercial but a fake commercial (never aired, just for the web) by a new agency trying to show their skills.
posted by dobbs at 6:06 PM on February 9, 2022


Is this where I get someone to find the commercial that creeped me out sometime in the 70s? Man and woman are on a sofa. Man turns off the lamp, wanting to make a move. Woman turns it back on, discouraging him. Repeat. Airplane flies overhead; woman looks concerned, and turns off the lamp.

I asked my mom why, and she explained that during the war, airplanes looked for lights to know where to bomb. Cue fear of hearing airplanes overhead for years.

Though I also *should* have been creeped out by the guy's repeated attempts to make his move despite the woman's "no" signal... but that wasn't remarkable in the 70s.

No idea what it was advertising. Anyone know what I mean?
posted by daisyace at 6:26 PM on February 9, 2022


Best answer: I went looking for vaguely-remembered Detroit-area commercials I saw as a kid and there's this trove. The first five minutes are a rich vein, especially the "Mighty Hand":

Commercials and Idents and partial Dating game 1980 WXON 20 Detroit

Then there was this WRIF commercial that looked like an unsettling deepfake before that word existed.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:32 PM on February 9, 2022 [1 favorite]


Best answer: My least favorite commercial ever was the one where the woman's skeleton crawls out of her body to get some milk from the fridge and the poor woman is left as a horrible, sentient skin suit on the floor. I'm pretty sure it was a Got Milk ad. Pure body horror nightmare stuff, more appalling than anything they ever did on The X-Files, and I'm kind of amazed it aired on broadcast TV during episodes of Wheel of Fortune and shit.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 7:05 PM on February 9, 2022 [4 favorites]


Best answer: This one, right?

Got Milk?
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:17 PM on February 9, 2022 [3 favorites]


Best answer: How could I forget the infamous Love's Baby Soft ads? I remember not realizing what was going on as a young person seeing these, but they're a bit rough to look at now.

This page has some more about the ad campaigns and the skeevy print ads.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 9:25 PM on February 9, 2022 [2 favorites]


This one, right?

Got Milk?


I'm not clicking on the link to check. It's one of those things I genuinely wish I could unsee.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:05 PM on February 9, 2022


In the 90s New Zealand's Accident Compensation Corporation ran a whole series of horrific, fake-out ads to try and make us more careful and stop having terrible accidents that would result in expensive taxpayer-supported care. Think, a lady talks about a nice muesli bar to the camera and then trips face-first into a glass coffee table, or a guy shows a bucket of paint then falls two storeys off an unsafe ladder. Given regular Twitter discourse, we are still collectively traumatised.
posted by slightlybewildered at 12:52 AM on February 10, 2022 [2 favorites]


This thread is amazing.
posted by widdershins at 7:41 AM on February 10, 2022 [1 favorite]


This pair of Volkswagen commercials include some fun surprises.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:05 AM on February 10, 2022


There was an ad in the early 1980s for some toothpaste that showed a teacher dipping a piece of chalk into a jug of blue liquid (like, Kool Ade or something, I believe they were on a picnic) and then snapping the chalk in half to show how the liquid had absorbed into the chalk just like the fluoride would absorb into your teeth. To this day I don't like touching chalk, or thinking about chalk, or writing comments about chalk. The ad was Danish and shown before movies, but it might have been an international chalky ad campaign.

OK I took a bullet and looked. It's a Colgate commercial, and yes, it was in the US as well. I can't find that particular Danish ad with the pitcher, but that's okay.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:25 PM on February 10, 2022 [1 favorite]


Sometime in the early 2000s, there was a GE "clean coal" commercial that used "Sixteen Tons" as its soundtrack.
posted by laurasbadideas at 6:36 AM on February 11, 2022


Best answer: I woke up in the middle of the night and realized it was a Jamaican ad, not a Danish one, for Colgate. I couldn't find it but I did find this, which I had blocked from my memory for decades. You're welcome. Graaaaaace tomato ketchup!
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:35 AM on February 11, 2022 [1 favorite]


> Internet legend has it that if you watch this Japanese Kleenex commercial you'll probably get cursed.

It's weird seeing that and hearing something connected to a classic trance song from Orbital - they sampled a remake of that, I think.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:13 PM on February 22, 2022


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