IRT insurance commercials showing the husband dying - men do tend to die younger, as well as being most often the majority wage-earner. It makes sense for them to target the potential widows.
There was a whole series of commercials, for ESPN I believe, that featured “extreme” sports in foreign countries, such as a Chinese man getting crushed by a tree, or an Iranian man leaping off an eighty-foot cliff into a pile of rocks (followed by the polite golf-clapping of several burka-clad spectators.) The point being, of course, that American sports are much more entertaining to watch…though I tend to disagree. 
Dunno if they were supposed to be dead or merely critically injured, but they never got up afterwards. The ads caused a bit of controversy, IIRC.
There’s a Skittles commercial that shows three teens sitting high up in the sky on a rainbow, eating candy. One of them says something like, “What if this isn’t real? What if there isn’t actually a rain…” and the section of rainbow he’s sitting on suddenly drops down, causing him to fall, presumably to his death. The other two look down sadly, shaking their heads, and one of them says, “He shouldn’t have doubted the rainbow.”
It’s a fantasy scenario, sure, but still somewhat disturbing within the framework of the fantasy.
The one big unwritten rule that children should learn is that you can’t believe what you see on TV commercials. This will save them a lot of money, over the course of their lives.
I think the idea is that you want something in your ad to make your ad stand out and make an impression.
Like a guy being thrown out of an airplane.
But you don’t want to associtate your product with something unplesant.
Like being squished to death after falling out of plane with no parachute.
So since the guy thrown out of the plane was using the product, he had to live. The product does not cause death. Not using the product may cause death but the product never causes death.
But I do like those cookie ads with the cookie coming to a cute little girls birthday party and the the cookie asks
"Where’s the cake?’
and the cute little girl says
“We’re not having cake.”
Off topic intro: I’ve been lurking for a while, and I’ve decided to pony up and post again. This board is great, witty, funny, and more leinient than other boards. I’m pleased to help fight ignorance on a board that’s worth the money.
Two commercials I remember-one that does involve a death, and one that involves something that would kill someone if it occured in real life, but doesn’t in the commercial.
First, the light-hearted, non-death one. From the American Dairy Farmers. Two kids refuse to drink their milk, even though their mother says that it will make them big and strong and the calcium will strengthen their bones and whatnot. Their elderly neighbor (whose name I’ve forgotten, so let’s just call him Mr. Jenkins) doesn’t drink his milk, and look at him! Cut to Mr. Jenkins lifting a wheelbarrow. Off go his arms, and he comments something to the effect of “That isn’t good!” The two kinderlach quickly drink their milk. got milkTM?
And now, the death one. The American Legacy Foundation’s “truth” campaign featured phony ads for soft drinks, basketball shoes, and whatnot with the same theme. The shoe one featured four basketball players on the court. All of a sudden, the fourth one touches ground and the shoes explode. Cut to a screen of text. “Only one consumer product kills one out of every four people who use it. Tobacco.”
(Speaking of the American Legacy Foundation, am I the only one who misses their “Live to see it-stay smoke-free” newspaper-headlines-of-the-future ads next to the TV lisings in USA TODAY? The “bad advice on how to quit smoking” just doesn’t live up to it.)
SpikeTV is advertising their syndicated CSI reruns with a series of spots in which somebody is attacked and/or kidnapped by a serial killer, and while the killer drags the victim out of the house or digs the grave or whatever, the victim is using his CSI-gleaned knowledge to inform the killer of all the forensic mistakes he’s making. There’s never any indication that the killer isn’t able to finish his work.