10 Scary Television Commercials
Published in Entertainment at March 30th, 2017 at 11:39 AM
Little Baby’s Ice Cream
What even is this advert? This advert is the definition of insanity as it features a person covered in ice cream staring into your soul as it eats the ice cream off of himself. Now sure it sounds weird, but it doesn't sound down right scary. Bare with us. It gets a whole lot worse!
The narrator doesn’t make things any better as he creepily talks over the advert talking about his skin and then creepily saying “I eat little babies” before pausing for a brief moment before saying “Ice cream” Referring to the name of the product. We all know what this advert was hinting at and goddammit it is unsettling! But that's not the worst part!
As the advert continues with this guy staring directly, eating ice cream while the narrator continues to spurt out creepy dialogue, The camera begins to zoom out to reveal that this person isn't a person at all. He is a man who is literally made out of ice cream and is essentially eating his own head while staring into your soul with his beady little eyes. What nut job made this!
McDonald's 60s Commercial
Who doesn’t know Ronald McDonald? I mean he’s only the mascot of the biggest fast food chain in the world? Well if you were around for his first televised advert, Odds are you’re still having nightmares about him.
The first time we ever see him is when he’s shown in a darkly lit room looking at the television set almost menacingly. Obviously that’s not what they were going for but that’s how this ad came across. We get our first proper look at him when the lights switch on and it’s fairly safe to say that he's easily give Pennywise from IT a run for his money.
Now it's bad enough seeing a silhouette of the guy but the second the light switch is flipped, We're greeted by this obvious convict who thought it would be a good idea to throw a many fast food items on himself and smear a bunch of ketchup on his face to disguise himself as a mascot. Well it didn't work because he looks more like a serial killer than he did before. The commercial itself is just fine but believe it or not people were scared of this because a lot of people had a phobia of clowns and Ronald's original design didn't exactly help that phobia as he was just plain creepy..
Japanese Autoway Tire Advert
Carrying on the theme of the paranormal, Japanese company Autoway Tires created an advert that is actually quite terrifying no matter what age you are as the advert begins with a disclaimer stating “Not for the faint of heart. Please refrain from watching the content if any of the following applies to you: Have any mental or physical health concern and may have to see a doctor regularly. We shall not be liable for any injuries, illness, and damages claimed to be caused by watching the contents.”.
When you see that, You know you’re in for a scary experience as the advert is taken from a dashcam perspective as this vehicle is driving through a snowy woodland area. They eventually come across the figure of a young woman standing in the middle of the road.
As the car stops, It just shows this woman in the middle of the road for a few seconds only for her to suddenly appear on the windshield, scaring the driver and the audience watching. This is easily dubbed as one of the scariest commercials ever created.
Phones 4 U “The Ring” Crossover
Probably one of the more recent commercials on this list, This advert for Phones 4 U aired in October of 2011. As you’d expect, it had a halloween theme to it as it shows a woman being haunted by a creepy child in a parking lot.
As she gets in her car, The little girl is suddenly outside, staring through the window, thus giving the woman the shock of her life. This was only so she could try and sell her a phone.
This advert was really creative and wasn’t really scary to adults, However this advert did air during the day when children could watch so obviously when they get scared by it, a lot of parents go on a boycott rampage to get the advert removed from television.
80s Kinder Advert
We all know what kinder eggs are. Sure they’re banned in America because they're scared that some kid would be stupid enough to inhale the toy inside, but in other countries they were something every child wanted. Well i imagine back in the 80s nobody wanted to go anywhere near them as the mascot of these adverts was just downright terrifying.
Obviously inspired by Humpty Dumpty, The ad features a human in the shape of a egg sitting atop a wall opening up a kinder egg and playing with the toy that would come with it before falling off the wall, Much like the nursery rhyme. Well it would have been an innocent commercial if humpty dumpty wasn’t made from your worst nightmares.
The Meth Project
This advert is pretty damn terrifying but if it doesn’t work to stop someone using meth that i don’t know what will. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, it follows a young woman from her hazy meth induced state to the ugly realities of her meth addicted life. The commercial itself starts with a woman looking normal (Albeit she looks a bit dazed). As the commercial goes on, Her face starts to become more and more rough.
As the camera pans out, Her mother sees that her wrists are bleeding. This as you'd expect sends the mother into a panicked state as she starts begging her daughter to stop and for her to let her help with her addiction while she tries restraining her from doing anymore damage to herself. This gory 30 second advert was the first of a 4 part series targeted directly at teenagers. Not going to lie, As scary as this advert is,
Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario — “CPR Makes you Undead”
Dear Canada, Why do you have the most messed up PSA commercials? Seriously if it’s not showing a woman get seriously harmed in a restaurant for workplace accident commercials, you give us something like this. So the advert shows a woman surrounded by zombies which sends her into a panic induced heart attack.
So in a comedic turn of events, These zombies actually attempt to save the woman's life as they end up acting out all the procedures when witnessing someone having a heart attack such as calling 911 and performing CPR. Sounds kind of heart warming right? Well it is as they do in fact save her life.
Only for the hoard of the undead to then swarm her and rip her apart. That escalated really quickly! The commercial then fades to black as it shows there slogan for their campaign, stating that “CPR makes you undead”. I’m sorry but how is that a good thing? Nobody wants to be a zombie. That’s not the end of it though.
The commercial then shows one final scene of the woman who has now reanimated into one of the undead. Look at the woman now after being turned into a zombie. Like that's pretty damn gory! That’s a bit too gruesome for daytime television if i don’t say so myself.
Levi’s,
During the 60s and early 70s, it was almost normal that people would drop acid. Sure it was illegal but it was so popular that even the police back then were probably on it.
The people behind levi’s commercials were no exception. These adverts were some weird acid trip gone wrong as it asks you what if human life didn’t turn out the way it did before showing us some of the weirdest visuals you could imagine. Thanks for the nightmare levis.
Resident Evil 2 Japanese Commercial
Okay so this one is a bit of a cheat since the advert promotes a horror video game however back then, Games were still seen as nothing but babies things so an advert like this was something completely different.
The way the advert was presented was more like an 80s horror film which is something that should not be exposed to children as it featured fantastic makeup effects and the use of guns. What arguably made this advert a huge success was that it was directed by legendary horror director and the king of zombie films, George Romero.
There was also another advert with stock footage from this one but presented more like a psychological nightmare. Yes for teenagers and adults, This advert was awesome but you can sort of see how scary it could be for a 5 year old child who owns a PS1 and a copy of Crash Bandicoot.
PS3 Baby and Old Russian Man
In the mid 2000s it can be argued that videogames have become something more than “Just games”. Sony intended to prove this with their weird ad campaign to promote their new console, The Playstation 3.
These adverts were creepy to say the least as the creepiest of the series was the infamous "Baby" commercial. What are we supposed to get out of that, huh? That the PS3 will make creepy baby dolls cry, retract their tears, and confuse it with their mother? That's terrifying. It didn’t end.
There was another advertisement known as the "This is Living" advert featured a naked Russian man lying in a bathtub in a darkened room challenged viewers to think about their lives before pulling a gun on them and cackling. What were Sony smoking!?
