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Commercials that scared you as a child (or still do)

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Commercials that scared you as a child (or still do)

Old 01-06-05, 02:57 PM
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Commercials that scared you as a child (or still do)

I just had to put this out there because this was a commercial that I remember well but not what it was for--I think it was a PSA--It was animated, and it was some sort of monster walking towards the screen and its face kept getting redder and redder until the monster exploded. It was on back in the 70's, and I avoided late-night TV while this spot was in rotation! I ran for the hills everytime it came on, and there was even a shorter edit of the commercial where the thing was moving faster. Anyone ever see this ad??
Besides, I was interested in hearing if anyone had any other scary TV commercials they remembered.
Old 01-06-05, 03:00 PM
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Good idea for a thread.

I can't think of any commericials, but my daughter runs out of the room during the opening credits of Futurama right when the ship rams into the giant television.
Old 01-06-05, 03:32 PM
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Not to threadjack this into "things you saw on TV that scared you as a kid that probably shouldn't have", but I ran out the room the first time I saw the land shark on SNL...
Old 01-06-05, 03:36 PM
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Also not a commercial, but I was always scared when David (Bruce) Banner turned into the Hulk. I always ran out of the room and waited until he stopped changing.
Old 01-06-05, 03:40 PM
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there will be commericals for movie that still freak me out.. the grudge for one and there is a current commerical for a movie that has a family living in a house with dead kids living there.... oh yeah and the white noise one
Old 01-06-05, 03:40 PM
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that Burger King commercial where the guy wakes up to find that plastic looking King in his bed w/ a breakfast sandwich freaks me out.
Old 01-06-05, 03:52 PM
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In the early '70s, there were these commercials for some kind of board game. If I remember correctly, the premise was this somewhat nerdy looking guy was playing against some crime boss in his underground lair or something. Anyway, every time the guy would win, infuriating the bad guy. He would push a switch, causing some device to make the guy flat as a pancake. At the end of the commercial you saw cardboard cutout of him pop out holding the game box, complete with that comedic 5 note melody.

While the ads were clearly meant to be comedic, as a kid it really terrified me because I realized being flattened like that also meant you were killed! It actually gave me a coupe of nightmares.
Old 01-06-05, 04:49 PM
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Those Quiznos commerical with those puppet rats?? scare me.
Old 01-06-05, 05:00 PM
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Originally Posted by QuikSilver
Those Quiznos commerical with those puppet rats?? scare me.
Spongmonkeys!
Old 01-06-05, 05:45 PM
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I used to run and hide from the Friday the 13th TV series advertisements.
Old 01-06-05, 05:53 PM
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I think they stopped airing it and I can't remember what it was advertising but on some cable channel they had a man talking in front of a orange background talking about something driving him crazy and then the next frame has his hair all whacked out and him looking crazy right up in the camera. Freaked me out and this was earlier this year and I'm 35.

Wow this is great therapy. Another one as a child was the commercial for the movie "Magic" where they have the puppet from the move saying a poem and at the end he goes "magic is fun, we're all dead" and his eyes roll up in his head and his eyes closed. Scared the crap out of me then and would probably frak me out if I saw it again today..........what do you mean my times up, I just got here : )
Old 01-07-05, 02:22 AM
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Any one with Matthew Lesko
Old 01-07-05, 02:47 AM
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Originally Posted by Drexl
Any one with Matthew Lesko




"Buy my book, or I'll kill you in your sleep! And I'll get $90,000 in government money to do it."
Old 01-07-05, 06:38 AM
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Originally Posted by Joe Molotov
I used to run and hide from the Friday the 13th TV series advertisements.
The Jason Goes To Hell ads used to REALLY scare me.
Old 01-07-05, 07:00 AM
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Originally Posted by Flatlander
Wow this is great therapy. Another one as a child was the commercial for the movie "Magic" where they have the puppet from the move saying a poem and at the end he goes "magic is fun, we're all dead" and his eyes roll up in his head and his eyes closed. Scared the crap out of me then and would probably frak me out if I saw it again today..........what do you mean my times up, I just got here : )
To this day I think about that commercial and it gives me the creeps. It terrified me so much that I refused to go see The Black Hole with my family for fear they'd show it before the movie. Instead I had to sit home with my older brother and get smacked around for the better part of the day.
Old 01-07-05, 07:14 AM
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Originally Posted by Joe Molotov




"Buy my book, or I'll kill you in your sleep! And I'll get $90,000 in government money to do it."




While this isn't a TV commercial, what used to scare me as a kid were those Crime Stoppers radio advertisements.

I used to sleep with the radio on, but often times I would wake up in the middle of the night and they would have the Crime Stoppers announcement on, describing the crime, where it took place, and any suspects. The seriousness of the guy's voice freaked me out. Whenever I heard it I would plug my ears humming to myself and hide under my blanket. Getting up to turn off the radio was just not an option.
Old 01-07-05, 08:27 AM
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Originally Posted by Eplicon
In the early '70s, there were these commercials for some kind of board game. If I remember correctly, the premise was this somewhat nerdy looking guy was playing against some crime boss in his underground lair or something. Anyway, every time the guy would win, infuriating the bad guy. He would push a switch, causing some device to make the guy flat as a pancake. At the end of the commercial you saw cardboard cutout of him pop out holding the game box, complete with that comedic 5 note melody.

While the ads were clearly meant to be comedic, as a kid it really terrified me because I realized being flattened like that also meant you were killed! It actually gave me a coupe of nightmares.
Holy Carp, I was going post this exact same commercial! That flattening bit always scared me too.
Old 01-07-05, 09:14 AM
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Originally Posted by Burnt Alive
Spongmonkeys!
Coincidentally, I happened to see an article in the Wall Street Journal about Quizno's next campaign. The full article is on WSJ's pay site, but here is the teaser:

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Quiznos Is Taking the Edge Off

Toasted-sandwich emporium Quiznos Sub is trading in one kind of crazy advertising critter for another.

The privately held Denver chain, known for brandishing a googly-eyed, rodent-like creature known as a "Spongmonkey" last year to would-be consumers through ads, will tone down the outrageousness when it launches a campaign Sunday featuring ad-character-turned-sitcom-star Baby Bob.
Old 01-07-05, 09:37 AM
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One commercial that currently scares me is one of the "regret: the anti drug" commercials where this standing old man in a black suit follows around this girl as she walks around at school and in a record store. Up until that point, it's kind of freaky. Then the commercial shows the girl running over the old man.
Old 01-07-05, 09:43 AM
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Originally Posted by flagstone
The privately held Denver chain, known for brandishing a googly-eyed, rodent-like creature known as a "Spongmonkey" last year to would-be consumers through ads, will tone down the outrageousness when it launches a campaign Sunday featuring ad-character-turned-sitcom-star Baby Bob.


Because the show was such a hit?
Old 01-07-05, 10:49 AM
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Thanks folks!
BTW, I remember the board game commercial--I think that was Jerry Lewis that got flattened, but I don't remember the game.

I wish somebody remembered the monster commercial I described. The thing looked like a fat grinch.

When I was even younger, I also was afraid of the fight sequences in Batman the TV series, of all things!
Old 01-07-05, 10:57 AM
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When I was about 4 (mid 80s) there was a commercial I think for a toilet bowl cleaner where the toilet, not having been cleaned properly with the competitor's product, turned evil and started laughing a sinister laugh as the bathroom got all dark and creepy. I mean, we had clean toilets, but it still made me a little bit wary of using it on occasion.
Old 01-07-05, 02:12 PM
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I remember a commercial in the late 70's for a movie called "Prophecy", that had some kind of creature that looked like a skinned wild boar (IIRC), running through the woods killing people. Scared the hell out of me.

Also, the commercial for the original Amityville Horror movie scared me.
Old 01-07-05, 03:29 PM
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As a child, on a vdieocasette from New World, there was a trailer for the video release of THE STUFF, which freaked me out to no end because they included the demise of Chocolate Chip Charlie (Garrett Morris) where The Stuff exits his body.
Old 01-07-05, 03:44 PM
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late at night......"its 10pm... do you know where your children are".....

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