# Most disturbing PSA ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198 "2010-01-24T04:28:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/21 "2010-01-24T16:20:51Z")
The disturbing ones are the most effective. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/22 "2010-01-24T17:24:01Z")
This one, using the [Smurfs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MAYrF1PDks), is very disturbing. And yes, it was made with the permission of Peyo, the creator of the Smurfs. ---
**Author:** ![Taenia\_spp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Taenia\_spp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taenia_spp)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/23 "2010-01-24T17:36:55Z")
How about some gross-out then? [NYC Anti-Soda PSA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F4t8zL6F0c) ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/24 "2010-01-24T19:14:29Z")
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YjrkBYDDQM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YjrkBYDDQM) - Australian anti-smoking ad featuring a woman that looks like she’s going to croak any second now. They’ve recently started showing it here as part of a campaign where students were asked to choose the most disturbing ad. I want to puke every time I see it. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/25 "2010-01-24T19:29:21Z")
All of these [Canadian workplace safety ones](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evn5uft2hsg&feature=related) are pretty disturbing. Especially the boiling water one. ---
**Author:** ![happycamper\_5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cab0a1/32.png) [@happycamper\_5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happycamper_5)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/26 "2010-01-24T20:28:48Z")
When I read the thread title, one video immediately came to mind - the [Emma Thompson Human Trafficking PSA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK39iQFZIhc). It’s probably NSFW, although it’s not explicit. It focuses on the human sex trade, though, so the subject alone wouldn’t be appropriate for some places. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/27 "2010-01-24T20:39:45Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > All of these [Canadian workplace safety ones](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evn5uft2hsg&feature=related) are pretty disturbing. Especially the boiling water one. She said ‘deep fryer’, so I assume it was 350º oil. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/28 "2010-01-24T20:42:06Z")
I’ve looked on YouTube for the PSA where people sing “this little light of mine” in the dark and then shine a flashlight on themselves from below, it’s disturbing in a Burger King King sense. Anyone have a link or am i hallucinating it? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/29 "2010-01-24T20:47:23Z")
> [@Taenia\_spp](#): > > How about some gross-out then? > > [NYC Anti-Soda PSA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F4t8zL6F0c) Goddammit, it’s like they’re TRYING to give me anorexia. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/30 "2010-01-24T21:23:06Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > This one, using the [Smurfs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MAYrF1PDks), is very disturbing. And yes, it was made with the permission of Peyo, the creator of the Smurfs. Actual title of that video: \*\*\*Avatar \*\*\*in thirty seconds. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/31 "2010-01-24T21:24:31Z")
> [@Taenia\_spp](#): > > How about some gross-out then? > > [NYC Anti-Soda PSA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F4t8zL6F0c) [A video response.](http://bit.ly/bleargh) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/32 "2010-01-24T21:32:32Z")
😕 I see nothing disturbing about that PSA whatsodamever. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/33 "2010-01-25T03:15:19Z")
Not really disturbing, since it has Denis Leary in it, but the idea is there: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/E5JClvSNOU0/hqdefault.jpg "denis leary anti-drink drive advert (PSA)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5JClvSNOU0) ---
**Author:** ![RhapsodyInBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RhapsodyInBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RhapsodyInBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/34 "2010-01-25T04:35:44Z")
The late Yul Brynner taped what I thought was [a chilling anti-smoking PSA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjunlWUJJI) to be aired after his death. It contains no special effects whatsoever, just a sincere plea: “Now that I’m gone, I tell you: Don’t smoke, whatever you do, just don’t smoke.” ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/35 "2010-01-25T05:16:52Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > Not really disturbing, since it has Denis Leary in it, but the idea is there: > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5JClvSNOU0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5JClvSNOU0) I wish this could be shown in the states; probably wouldn’t be since more people would object to the use of “asshole” than the drunk driving! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/36 "2010-01-25T08:27:26Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > This one, using the [Smurfs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MAYrF1PDks), is very disturbing. And yes, it was made with the permission of Peyo, the creator of the Smurfs. Odd, given Peyo died in '92 and that ad came out in 2005, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/37 "2010-01-25T09:36:44Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > This one, using the [Smurfs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MAYrF1PDks), is very disturbing. And yes, it was made with the permission of Peyo, the creator of the Smurfs. That one appears to be about UNICEF, but wasn’t there some flap a few years ago when Smurfs-getting-bombed was used as propaganda to make the Dutch support the EU constitution? Or is it the same ad and I’m making it up? > [@GreedySmurf](#): > > I always thought [This One](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U219eUIZ7Qo) was pretty disturbing. Not in a blood and guts sense. > > By all accounts it was a reasonably effective campaign - it certainly got people talking at the time. > > When listening to the info in the voiceover, you have to keep in mind that it was from the early eighties. Interesting in that if you look at the sidebar, it says this was controversial because…the Grim Reapers were thought to symbolize gay men. Never would have occurred to me. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/38 "2010-01-25T12:56:26Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > Not as disturbing as [this one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugTeOz7rsgE). That was pretty scary by itself, but the comments…man, the comments section. The comments section. Is a voluminous pile of filthy misogyny and depressing ‘irony’…it ew. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/39 "2010-01-25T14:15:13Z")
> [@Taenia\_spp](#): > > How about some gross-out then? > > [NYC Anti-Soda PSA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F4t8zL6F0c) That one wins, hands down. I seriously just about vomited my breakfast watching that. ---
**Author:** ![cgg419](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cgg419/32/2847_2.png) [@cgg419](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cgg419)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198/40 "2010-01-25T18:02:42Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > All of these [Canadian workplace safety ones](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evn5uft2hsg&feature=related) are pretty disturbing. Especially the boiling water one. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > She said ‘deep fryer’, so I assume it was 350º oil. As soon as I saw the thread title, that’s the one I thought of… Disturbing, yet effective; just like our cigarette package photos [http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/handouts/tobacco\_advertising/canadian\_labels.cfm](http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/handouts/tobacco_advertising/canadian_labels.cfm) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-psa-ever/526198.md?page=3)