Sequoia

This isn't really a particular ad that is making me scratch my head, but more a style of ad. I watch a lot of older shows and game shows, and they air a lot of medication ads or insurance and all those fun topics. The thing I don't get is how these commercials go on and on and on and it just sounds like a bunch of blah blah blah. Since I am not part of the target demographic, I asked my Gramma what she thinks of them, and she said she can't stand to hear them over and over. It seems like these commercials should be in instructional videos about how not to do commercials. A lot of times they just keep on yapping their jaws until your eyes glaze over, and these atrocities can go on for two or three minutes. I've watched videos from people who tell you how to create effective commercials, and they say to be brief and just try to get your main point across. These people try to pack every bit of their information into one commercial. Wouldn't the best strategy be to have a 30-second or at the most 60-second spot and just direct people to your website or if they can't use computers, give them a number to call? Have they not heard of DVR and the lovely ability to skip ads? It's almost like they want people to hit the fast-forward button.

Sending prayers and positive thoughts your way.

I always get excited when I see the Hershey's kiss ad. We have a DVR, and that one will probably not be fast-forwarded when I hear it, lol.

The Ozempic ad, or however you spell it, makes me extremely stabby. Every time I hear it, I will always yell out, "I HATE THAT FLIPPIN' COMMERCIAL!!!" Seriously, I wish I could force all the people who were involved with bringing that monstrosity to life to be locked in a room for twelve hours with that ad played on repeat.

Yup you caught me.

When you only hear it, your imagination will fill the rest in for you, and trust me, my imagination could make ads that were far creepier than what was actually happening. I actually found out when I read TWoP that a lot of the ads I heard that were so scary were actually either funny or stupid when you knew the whole story. I think I thought a lot of things I saw were going to come and get me as well, although I couldn't have described it in that way. They would play in my head way after they had gone off. TWoP was truly a cool site. I did a lot more reading than I did posting. I was known as keyboardplayer there, and i think I pretty much only posted in the commercials section. I would mostly like to read the huge threads. Imagine my sadness after I found out it had closed *cry*.

From a few pages back, I'll never be able to see the Jimmy Dean commercial the same way again. When you point that out about a dead guy saying, "I wish I could tell you how I feel", that is straight up eerie.

Hey cool, i used to be scared of them as well, to the point that I would almost curl into the fetal position when I heard one, yet I had this fascination with them even back then. It wasn't until 2008 that I started analyzing them and then I liked them. One of the first things i saw when I started analyzing PSA's was the now departed TWoP's big thread about that topic. I'm a part of the PSA/PIF community on YouTube *is a nerd*. The meth ads you were describing were actually not PDFA, but a different organization called the Montana Meth Project, later just the Meth Project. I never saw them on actual TV, but I've seen them loads of times on YouTube. Those ads do not play *brrrrrr*. I remember one with a couple saying wedding vows, and I think it was about domestic abuse. I only saw it a few times, or maybe only read about it. It was something along the lines of "I vow to let you control me and to always do what you tell me, even if you beat the crap outa me". That is paraphrased of course. I have no eyesight, so I don't know if they were standing in a field or not. I would like to see that again.

This may be a bit tricky because I am visually impaired, so I can only describe what the ads sound like. Unfortunately I didn't ask for a description when they aired. I have two ads that I'm looking for. The first one came out in 1994 and was for BellSouth Mobility. The song started out with a lady saying, "This is what life is" in a creepy voice, and then she yodeled and then sang the slogan, "Never stand still" except it was in a really distorted way that I had to have explained to me before I could understand what she said. The other one I think I only saw one time, but it really scared me so it stuck out. It was for Brinks home security system. There was either a piano or a music box playing the Brahms Lullaby, and in a soothing voice, the announcer said, "The Brinks Lullaby" followed by the music stopping and a siren going off. I was a little kid and was hearing it from a TV played in the next room while I was in bed, so I can't tell you anything else except that it scared about twenty years off my life. I have tried to search for these ads on Google and YouTube, but I hit dead air. Heck it's almost like I have dreamed these ads.

I was watching one of those top 50 scariest PSA's countdowns which I am a huge fan of, and I saw an ad that was truly terrifying. I have never seen it before except in that countdown, and I've not yet been able to find a video with only that ad, but it was one of the most upsetting things I've seen in a long time. I'm visually impaired so I can't describe what happened in the picture, but the voiceover starts listing all the various names for crystal meth. He then told about a guy in Arizona who decapitated his son and then dumped the head on the side of the road while high on meth. I found out from a Google search that it came out in 1997 from the lovely folks at Partnership for a Drug-free America. Apparently TV stations didn't want to air it (gee, I wonder why) and so it was the first time PDFA actually bought ad time rather than trying to get that atrocity to air during free PSA slots. Usually I'm a fan of PSA's, the creepier the better, but I'm not sure I can watch that one again.

Has anyone seen the Superbowl anti-domestic violence PSA with the lady who calls 911 and pretends that she is ordering a pizza so that way her sorry excuse for a boryfriend won't know that she's actually calling the police? This is one of the most powerful PSA's I've seen in a long time.