There’s one I saw at the cinema recently; a few scenes, all in this sort of format:
A boy is playing and laughing with some friends; he turns his back on the camera momentarily; at the same time as it has zoomed smoothly in to just him; it zooms out again as he turns back and all his friends are inexplicably gone - vanished without a trace, and there’s nowhere they could be hiding - they’ve just disappeared.
And I was watching it thinking "Wow! - this is powerful - it’s going to be something from Amnesty International, about how land mines destroy lives… "
and the final scene plays out and it’s something like “They’ve all gone to the Odeon cinema because of the bargain half-price midweek deal”. Anticlimax or what.
There was a PSA for the March of Dimes in the early 90s that showed a fetus smoking a cigarette in the womb. It ended with a child’s voice crying out, “Mommy, don’t!” I always had to leave the room when it came on. Another disturbing one was one for an abused children’s home, from the mid-80s, that showed a little boy with tears in his eyes. He slowly began to smile as the voiceover described the home. That wouldn’t have been so bad if the background music hadn’t been an orchestral version of Brahms’ Lullaby.
More recently, the Starburst commercial with the workers reaching into the vat of acid for some lost candy squicked me out.
These disturb me at a slightly different level - because they’re stupid.
First up: Cialis. Going by the commercial I guess this lets you get a boner whenever you want for two days or something. The stupidity is it looks as though they spent the last two days lugging two antique claw foot lead bath tubs down to the beach so they can sit in each one and hold hands. Hey brother - I think I know what your problem is - at least try sharing the tub.
The other is for Tylenol Cold and Flu. Frazzled Mom needs to get to work so she takes the medicine, makes it to work and proudly presents a 3D pie chart to her clients. Stupidity: there are no labels on it anywhere. It’s a two by three feet wax based color print which she delivers like she just finished an architectural model and it’s completely devoid of any information whatsoever except a bunch of blank pie pieces. I wish the commercial had the balls to show everyone at the conference table look at each other and give WTF open faced palm gestures.
So Burger King has a new ad with ballerinas knocking food out of people’s hands and taking them Burger King for food. At the end of one commercial, I swear, a ballerina reaches into a guys pocket and gives him a handjob while fishing for a buck. The King watches them the whole time.
Ah…they must be setting up the movie. THRILL! As the King’s prima ballerina henchpersons bully people to Burger King! CHILL! As the plastic-phizzed monstrosity assassinates Ronald McDonald and conquers the WORLD!
