Gods, that guy still creeps me out to this day. As a bonus, I found a clean instrumental track of the music on YouTube too, that will be a good add to a halloween playlist. Now for a soft drink. Tango has had a rather alarming marketing strategy over the years, but one that's worked. It has got them into trouble over the years though, as this one had to be censored, due to fears of kids potentially busting each other's ear drums trying to copy it. But they still seemed to try pushing the envelope on these things quite a bit, including starting a cult at one point. This first one was actually heavily complained against, because it is genuinely nightmarish, and the one after... gah, who designed that thing?!?
This one was nominated not really for the content, it's really mild slapstick, but for the style of animation; namely, the horrific, bug-eyed silent screams the characters give. Also, that Smarty face at the end is pretty damn sinister too.
Siri, show me an example of fat-phobia in an advert.
I and many others have joked about Teddy Ruxpin dolls being somewhat sinister for a while now (they still are!), but it looks like their marketing departments knew that back in the day too!
This is another one that got banned, and it's not hard to see why, especially since it's very much aimed at a kid's market. Really good stop motion used for this so, and in the late nineties. Seriously, let's have some more stop-motion monsters on screen again, it'd be great!
Back a bit before my time, but I cannot do this without mentioning the legendary Apple 1984 advert. It's how well this thing captured the totalitarian vibe, at the time when there was a fresh fear of power of communism, that gets me. Mind, that shot of them all dumbstruck by the blast, covered in dust, must have reminded 80s audiences of something else too.
Whilst on the topic of electronics, did you know David Lynch directed ads for the Playstation 2? It was... very David Lynch.
Microsoft saw people being freaked out by that though, and said "hold my beer!" What they made actually caused a major stink at the time.
Let's start wrapping up with something that's always good for raw terror tactics; public information films and public service announcements. Here's an infamous one about the dangers of smoking, which saw a good opportunity to use 80s era make-up effects to deliver its point. Not entirely convinced by the science of it though.
Northern Ireland decided to make a point about road safety in a blunt but hilariously over the top way. This actually got banned from playing on TV before the watershed, it's that damn dark!
I first saw that on a big screen at a film club meeting; I feel awful about it, but I and the rest of the audience broke into shocked laughter at it, it's so ridiculously brutal it's absurd! Let's end then with one of the big titles of Public Information Films. Before Halloween, this was Donald Pleasence's biggest horror role; it's 1973's Lonely Water.
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