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Spookiest 80's Commercials of all time

W

willdav713

Time Life's Mysteries of the Unknown commercial with the grey aliens ranks probably #1.

Any 80's commercials that scared the crap out of you back in the day?

Name them here!
 
There were a lot of 1980s commercials that were spooky and bizarre. A lot of PSAs count.
"We're Not Candy" from the NYC area. Now that's just bizarre. Who thought of having these big pills with eyes and a mouth singing...in high pitched voices? That was about 1983...? From what I know, WPIX-11 aired it for many years, even after the early 1980s.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xayd1c0wtOE
There were other really weird, bizarre, creepy PSAs back then...and even earlier in the 1960s. Smokey Bear had some really creepy ones in the 70s along with McGruff and other organizations. Believe there was one around 1973, a Smokey Bear ad, that had a woman opening up her face, painted over a scary looking Smokey Bear face/costume. Another bizarre PSA from the 60s included these kids in weird, creepy monkey costumes. I forget what it was for. And those puppets singing about "Don't Put Things in Your Mouth" in Canada circa early 1990s were creepy as heck as well. Huge blue bizarre puppets.

-crainbebo
 
Can't remember if it was the 80s or 90s, but Carl's Jr. (and probably Hardee's on the East Coast) produced a commercial that was more gross and creepy, than actually scary. The camera enters a house, with tense music playing - there are red drips and splatters all over the floor...the viewer assumes it is blood. The camera moves up a stairway...same thing...red splatters all over. Finally, the camera enters a room, and there is a person eating a huge Carl's Jr. cheeseburger, with ketchup dripping all over him, the floor, etc.

Carls Jr. got a lot of bad press for this ad, and had to pull it after it ran for just a couple of days. I'm guessing executives might have lost their jobs over this one.

The question is - why would you want viewers to associate your food with blood?

I looked online, but could not find this ad anywhere. I'm guessing that it was buried very deeply.
 
LKellerIII said:
Can't remember if it was the 80s or 90s, but Carl's Jr. (and probably Hardee's on the East Coast) produced a commercial that was more gross and creepy, than actually scary. The camera enters a house, with tense music playing - there are red drips and splatters all over the floor...the viewer assumes it is blood. The camera moves up a stairway...same thing...red splatters all over. Finally, the camera enters a room, and there is a person eating a huge Carl's Jr. cheeseburger, with ketchup dripping all over him, the floor, etc.

Carls Jr. got a lot of bad press for this ad, and had to pull it after it ran for just a couple of days. I'm guessing executives might have lost their jobs over this one.

The question is - why would you want viewers to associate your food with blood?

I looked online, but could not find this ad anywhere. I'm guessing that it was buried very deeply.
Click to expand...

Carls' Jr. actually didn't acquire the Hardee's chain until 1997--so thankfully we weren't exposed to their commercial dreck during the 80s and early 90s (Hardee's commercials were a lot more wholesome and "hometown-esque" during that time, especially here in the Midwest when it seemed like Hardee's was the first to expand into smaller communities during that time).
 
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