Number 15. “Hashtag” Pub Loo Shocker In 2013 a British ad designed to be a PSA
for drunk driving went totally viral. The 52-second-long video features drunk bar-goers
being scared sober by a surprise that jumps from the mirror. The men wash their hands or fix their hair
at the sink, and according to those controlling the whole scheme, if they seem drunk enough
a fake womans head crashed through the mirror, shattering it and leaving blood draining from
her forehead. The victims of this message usually jump back
or fall down in terror, and then move forward to examine exactly what they’re seeing. A scare like this is likely to sober them
up a bit, but the message behind the scare is more important than anything. The whole idea of this is to create the illusion
that the woman is actually jumping through a car windshield, as a drunk driver hit her. It presents a stark reality to those drinkers
and makes them think twice before getting into their car drunk. Many drinkers know of the dangers of drunk
driving but having something this up front and in your face has a much bigger impact
than just the usual warnings we see in media. Not only did these drunk men probably realize
they shouldn’t be drinking behind the wheel, many viewers of this viral ad got the same
idea when they saw how terrifying this image was. Despite the prop head being clearly fake,
the jump of it and the blood trickling down is still prettying scarring and its’ unlikely
to ever be forgotten. The short ad was produced by Leo Burnett for
England’s Department for Transport THINK! Campaign. According to recent statistics, a person dies
every 48 minutes due to drunk driving. That’s about 30 deaths a day and that’s
just in the U.S. Number 14. Levi’s Evolution This Levis commercial from the early 1970’s
actually wasn’t considered totally terrifying at the time. It was apparently a very popular commercial
as this flowing and looped art style was very popular during the time period. Especially in music videos. However, by today’s standards there’s
something pretty unsettling about this trippy commercial and its’ strange imagery. The levis commercial is meant to advertise
multiple products and styles in one commercial, which was quite unique for advertising at
the time. The video is a flowing and ever-changing depiction
of not only their products but humanoid creatures as well. The ad starts with a conch shell, out of which
swims a koi fish with a human face, which then transforms into a bird-like humanoid,
which then becomes a smoking caterpillar wearing bell bottom jeans on human legs, and so on. The idea presented is the evolution of man,
from bacteria and shells to full on humans. Except that regular human faces are thrown
onto each stage of evolution, along with a pair of jeans. As if these human-animal hybrids aren’t
creepy enough, the whole thing is narrated by a very deep, aged and terrifying voice. The kind of narration that wasn’t uncommon
for the era, but was still fairly terrifying. This same voice was featured in several other
Levis ads such as “Stranger” but here it has a God-like echoing horror to it. By the end of the commercial we see some relief
with two human males using the original conch shell as some sort of football. It doesn’t last long before one of them
fans their legs up and rolls back into the shell. This commercial has gone down in history as
one of Levis most disturbing ads, but they can’t be doing too bad if they’re still
profiting after all these years. Number 13. The Undeading Published in October 2012 by the heart and
stroke foundation, this commercial features a woman in a post-apocalyptic zombie wasteland,
fighting to survive. The Halloween themed commercial was filled
with disgusting rotting corpses chasing this woman through dead city streets, as well as
some pretty cool gory fight scenes. This woman suffers a heart attack during her
fight to stay alive and not be eaten. The creepy and grotesque zombies immediately
went into rescue mode and began to save the woman’s life. A zombie dressed as a doctor calls 911 while
another living corpse performs CPR. As this happens tips for saving someone from
heart attack or stroke come on screen. The video seems innocent enough, just the
foundations fun way of getting everyone into the spirit of Halloween in saving lives. But things get pretty dark when the woman
awakens from her state and peers at the zombies that just saved her life, then gets eaten. Yeah, after the zombies put in all that work
to save her we find out its’ just because they wanted her fresh when they devoured her. Of all the ways this commercial could have
ended, the creators chose a pretty morbid way of doing it. On the bright side this video led to a huge
event in which over 5,000 people were CPR trained! Number 12. Phones 4U This commercial was part of a Halloween themed
series for the phone company Phones 4 U, which isn’t that scary in itself, but if you’re
watching TV late at night and you’re unaware of the “Scary deals” that are happening,
you might be given a bit of a scare. This ad was published in 2011 during the series
and it features a woman alone in a parking garage, presumably after shopping at the mall. There’s a quick shot of a very creepy little
girl, in a dirty white dress, with long black hair and pale skin. The overall generic view of terrifying ghosts. The woman walking through the garage immediately
feels a presence and begins running to her car. She manages to get into her car and the creepy
little ghost pops up on her window and says “Hello” in a very ghostly, echoing voice. She then proceeds to tell the woman about
an amazing deal at Phones 4 U. Perhaps the scariest part of this commercial is the chilling
voice the ghost has. Imagining this on TV in the middle of the
night, as someone is working on their laptop or trying to fall asleep is pretty terrifying. Its’ also a little unfair as the viewer
probably wasn’t expecting this during their favorite late night talk show. Other ads in the series feature a creepy old
man chasing someone through the woods, and though these are pretty weird they’re also
pretty unique. The tag line for this series was “Missing
Our Deals Will Haunt You”. Number 11. Japanese Tire Commercial Japan is well known for their horror, and
their female ghosts. Its’ pretty much the Japanese coin for horror
entertainment. This tire company used that to their advantage
with this tire ad. One of the biggest points of advertising is
to make your viewers remember your commercials, and there’s no doubts the viewers won’t
forget this one for a very long time. The commercial begins on a snowy road in the
middle of night, and it seems are looking through a dash cam of some sort. As the driver travels down the long road,
a white figure can be seen in the distance. As the car approaches its’ clear that the
figure is a woman. The car begins to back away as the driver
is probably concerned about this ghostly figure in the middle of the road. But then all of a sudden the woman jumps right
onto their windshield in a perfectly executed jump scare. She has a damaged mouth and very dark lifeless
eyes. It can be supposed that she was a victim of
a hit and run caused by faulty tires, but of course that’s just speculation. Overall this commercial is pretty terrifying,
and again very unfair to unsuspecting viewers. Imagine this coming on in between a late night
show and you’re uncertain what you’re looking at until a ghost pops right up and
scares the ever living shit out of you. Props to this company for making an unforgettable
ad that was probably talked about for months on end, though! Number 10. Kinder Surprise Commercial of Nightmares Do I have to talk about this one? This commercial comes from the late 80’s
when Kinder decided the best spokesperson for their surprise eggs was Humpty Dumpty. Kinder Surprise eggs are chocolate eggs that
open up to reveal small toys or prizes inside. This commercial is literally so unsettling
that it’s hard to watch, yet somehow it became very popular as a meme with several
remakes and remixes made after it. The humpty dumpty creature looks more like
an egg shaped obese elderly man than an actual egg. His facial expressions are scary realistic
and its’ voice is strangely haunting as well. He unwraps the egg and shrieks “Chocka-doo-bee!”
and then is even more surprised to find a toy inside the chocolate egg. At least they got the surprise factor down
for their product, but the Humpty Dumpty creature is pure nightmare fuel. Seriously, did this company think their best
bet was to scar children for life? I can’t think of a single kid in the world
who would find this cute or amusing and not at least a little chilling. The worst part of this commercial is a very
short scene where the camera is zoomed in very closely to Humpty’s eyes when he blinks. He goes from a creepy human-like egg to an
unidentifiable humanoid creature that is sure to haunt your nightmares. This is one humpty dumpty that we all hope
falls down. Oh and by the way. He does fall down, the throws his hands up
to cheer and just falls backwards into a scene that we can only assume isn’t full of egg
shells, but is instead blood and guts. Surprise! Number 9. Fragile Childhood – Monsters This commercial is another PSA aimed to alerting
the masses of a very serious and life-threatening issue. The ad was created and published by the Fragile
Childhood which is a foundation that was started in 1986. According to their website “Fragile Childhood
has persistently sought new and efficient methods to secure a less troubled life for
children suffering from their parents’ substance abuse.” This PSA is not only very touching, and a
perfect example of what this organization works towards, its’ also quite terrifying. Its’ common for PSA’s to be scary in a
sense because their aim is to really shake the minds of its target audience. This particular PSA takes that shaking to
a whole new level. It can be assumed that the target audience
for this is parents suffering from substance abuse problems, but pretty much anyone unlucky
enough to view this commercial is bound to be haunted by it. The ad begins with several children in differing
settings looking toward an unknown character in fear, anger, and disgust. At first it is uncertain who these glances
are aimed toward. One scene features a sad little girl fiddling
with a milk shake and looking off into the distance. As the camera takes the scene from another
angle we see the character whom she is upset with and its’ a very large terrifying rabbit. The puppet-like rabbit has bulging eyes, sharp
protruding teeth, and wiry hair. The previous scenes of children walking or
playing brings the audience to other terrifying, monstrous creatures such as a pale hooded
figure, a woman that resembles a zombie with one eye hanging out of its’ socket, a bloody
elderly clown, a decaying Santa clause, and a man wearing a panty hose mask. A message pops up reading “How do our children
see us when we’ve been drinking?” It becomes clear that these monsters are a
child’s personification of their parents’ alcoholism. The ad is sure to make any parent think twice, and may
even urge non-parents to work with Fragile Childhood in their efforts to better the lives
of children. These childhood derived monsters are very
unsettling, as they prey on the fears of children which most viewers can relate to from their
younger years. Knowing that these monsters are actually their
parents is surely sad, but also adds another aura of horror. Number 8. Ronald McDonald Debut There’s nothing too out of the ordinary
for this commercial. Dated from 1963, this is the official debut
of Ronald McDonald, the well-loved mascot for the fast food burger chain McDonalds. The clip was published on YouTube back in
2008 and was really brought to fame in 2011. This depiction of Ronald McDonald is much
different from the one we see today, he’s spring a cup as a nose and a food tray as
a hat. Its’ clear that the original goal was to
have a clown costume that highly resembled aspects of fast food dining. Despite this brilliant idea the creation that
occurred looks more like a haunted scarecrow than a human dressed as a clown. But for those of you who have a deep fear
of clowns, this creature still looks enough like a freaky side show to give you nightmares
for a week. Toward the end of the commercial Ronald’s’
belt produces a tray holding a burger, fries and a drink. This imagery, of course, has caused some viewers
to question if there was any sexual nature behind this but its’ likely that it was
just the most convenient way to work the meal into the outfit. The actor that portrayed the clown was Willard
Scott, who later grew to fame as the weather man of Today on NBC. Even without the makeup and all these years
later you can still see a scary resemblance. Throughout the years good ol’ Mickey D’s
has had its share of scary commercials, questionable ads, psycho happy meal boxes, and of course
several different designs for their popular clown, but this original portrayal seems to
take the cake because it has that old 60’s found footage aura to it that makes the already
unsettling clown even more nightmarish. Number 7. Bad Breath Kills Number This commercial takes the idea of the
Holocaust and dictator controlled countries to advertise their mouthwash. It has gained plenty of backlash from viewers
as it seems to make light of very serious historical events. Politics aside, though, this commercial is
pretty terrifying simply for the way it depicts a dictatorship. A young man is pulled away by guards and led
to a dark, grey, run down and damp chamber. Its’ very clear that this is a play on the
gas chambers of the holocaust that killed millions. This victim is apparently being sentenced
to this “gas” chamber for his crimes of bad breath. As he is strapped into a seat that resembles
and electric chair, the giant cement door is slammed and sealed as a small crowd watches
in horror. The leader raises up a hand which signals
for vents to be opened, and through these vents mouths filled with greenish yellow teeth
open wide and let out ghastly breath. The idea is that this prisoner is being tortured
by horrible breath from several disgusting mouths. The depiction of gas chambers, the grotesque
mouths and the slow opera music playing over the scene makes this seem more like a historical
re-enactment of hell than a mouth wash commercial. As the scene ends the message “bad breath
kills, Frezza kills bad breath” comes on screen. Number 6. The Heart, She Holler Adult Swim has always been known for its’
late night terrifying ads and specials such as Unedited Footage of a Bear, Crooked Rot
and several of the dark infomercials that air around 4 a.m. It seems that the network loves to prey on
those night owls barely dozing off. This ad in particular is probably amongst
some of Adult Swim’s most terrifying work. The 30 second commercial features a pale white
woman laughing hysterically. She has white hair, totally whited out eyes,
and dark red lips which frame rotting teeth. Her laugh seems to get worse and worse as
the ad goes on and a blood splatter starts to form which spells out “The Heart, She
Holler”. This is of course the title for an Adult Swim
series and this ghostly woman is Meemaw from the show. The Heart, She Holler is a dark comedy that
has been labeled a “Southern Gothic” The series itself is full of pretty unsettling
imagery but this ad completely wins for being overly terrifying. Especially considering that it probably aired
very late at night. 5. Dark and Lonely Water
Again this PSA aims to scares its’ viewers into remembering the message it’s sending
out. The only problem here is that this commercials
audience was mostly young children and those that remember the ad claim it affected them
deeply for several years following. The ad features a cloaked figure, likely meant
to resemble the reaper. A slow and creepy narration explains that
this is the spirit of dark and lonely water, out to get show offs, fools and unwary children. This figure hangs out near open bodies of
water where children play. The first child is reaching for a ball that
fell into a pond of some kind, and the figure is off in the distance just before the child
falls in and assumedly drowns. The next child is doing something similar,
hanging from a tree branch to try and reach something in the water. Off in the horizon we can see the figure again,
right before the child falls into the water. In the last sequence of the ad a child is
drowning in a body of water behind a dumpsite despite a large sign that reads “No Swimming”
however, in this case the child is apparently saved by friends the figure disappears after
saying “Sensible children, I have no power over them” leaving its’ cloak behind. A young girl walks up and throws the cloak
into the water, to which the spirit explains “I’ll be back” in a haunting and echoing
voice. Even if the children watching this commercial
didn’t understand the references of death, or the narration, they would likely make a
connection between water and this terrifying figure, which would keep them away from water. While that was the aim of this PSA, it was
also not brought through in a very educational way. Its’ more of an artistic approach rather
than an outright explanation. Of course plenty of children likely avoided
drowning because of being scared away from water, but they were also haunted for several
years of their young lives. Even seeing this as an adult is pretty creepy
because of the aged quality. Number 4. Baby Secret Every couple of years we are blessed to see
a new toy for children enter the market that either is completely ridiculous on its’
own, or it has a horrible commercial that comes with it. From the doll that laughs like a demon, to
the doll that poops like a human, all the way to the internationally feared furbies,
toy companies just seem to keep having public blunders. This particular baby doll was released in
1965 and was called the Baby Secret Doll. The idea was that little girls could share
their secrets with the adorable doll, and in return the doll would also share its’
secrets. The idea doesn’t sound so bad, but unfortunately
there’s no way to avoid making a whispering doll creepy. The baby dolls’ lips would actually move
as it whispered phrases such as “I want to tell you something” “I only tell you
my secrets” and other generic phrases for the doll. Over the years not only has this commercial
gained popularity for being one of the creepiest doll ideas ever patented, but also for past
owners of baby secret to share some terrifying tales of the whispering doll. People have shared stories that the doll would
often say phrases and then never say them again, the thought of the doll would keep
them up at night as they thought every whisper in the night was the baby trying to communicate,
and of course there are tales of owners finding recording devices inside the doll but there’s
been no proof to that one. While there haven’t been any crazy archived
cases of the doll killing entire families, it’s pretty easy to picture something like
that happening. The best thing that toy companies can do is
just stop making talking dolls. Not only are they terrifying on their own,
the media as twisted talking and moving dolls into adorable little things from hell. Number 3. Halloween Candy October 31st is the one day of the year where
we can all walk around and have fun dressed up as whatever we want. The whole month is also a great source of
revenue for companies of all kinds. As many of us know from our childhoods, candy
companies make the biggest profit off of the holiday, right next to horror films and costume
companies. Not only do homeowners flood to their local
supermarket to get pounds of candy for the adorable neighborhood monsters that go door
to door, but people throwing Halloween parties get in on the candy as well. And let’s not forget the day after sales
when all the hungover bumble bees, sexy nurses and taco suit wearing adults go in for their
annual fix of cheap chocolate. With this kind of money pouring into the banks
of Hershey’s, Mars and other candy empires, you’d think they didn’t even need to post
ads to remind consumers that candy is the staple of the costume holiday. Apparently Snickers felt the need for this
horrific ad though! The idea was that two kids are dressed as
an old woman, when they meet a neighbor of theirs to remind her that “The neighborhood
kids love snickers!” this ghastly costumed duo then begin to dump
pounds of Snickers into the woman’s shopping basket as she looks on in horror. She finally manages to walk away and one child
peeps through the robe and says “We are definitely going to her house!” Again the concept itself wasn’t too harmful,
in fact it’s a pretty cute commercial aside from the absolutely terrifying costume that
these children decided to use. First of all, their heights combined create
a totally towering and well-built old woman, that seems to have trouble balancing. The clothing they used seems dirty and old,
like something they borrowed from their grandma that has been dead for 5 years. And that mask? That mask is like an imitation of drag makeup
from Satan’s night club. Plus, the kids eyes peering through the holes
of the mask make it even worse. Overall, this costume was scarring but maybe
that’s the point. Halloween is all about having fun while being
scary at the same time, which seems to be exactly what this commercial did. Number 2. The Judderman This commercial is so unsettling that is managed
to win the title of scariest tv commercial of all time in the UK, and it landed as number
31 in the 100 greatest scary TV moments. The commercial begins with what appears to
be a puppet show, where the puppets not only make very jerky movements, but are also depicted
pretty scary as well. The commercial then follows a elf-like man
with spikey white hair that seems to haunt the forest in the winter. He pretty much resembles Jack Frost. He comes upon an unsuspecting traveler and
convinces him to drink a Metz, an alcoholic schnapps drink. The traveler then turns to a puppet. All the while a poem is being read over the
scene by a young woman. Pretty much everything in this commercial
is creepy, from the art style, to the story, to the makeup, to the narration. Basically the only way to understand this
one is to have a look yourself! Number 1. PS3: Baby Again here we see a truly creepy commercial
involving a baby doll. As if dolls aren’t creepy enough when they’re
sitting silently in the corner, the media manages to make them even more chilling every
day. This ad for the Play Station 3 features an
empty white room with a PS3 on one end and a naked baby doll on the other end. The doll is sitting upright, and facing the
console directly. The camera zooms in toward the baby, then
closer to the console before cutting quickly back toward the doll who opens its eyes abruptly. The doll then opens its mouth and lets out
a simple baby-blah-blah noise. Then the commercial starts to quickly pick
up as the doll lifts an arm, laughs and blinks quickly. The movements the doll makes are very life-like
and its clear the plastic infant is sentient so we’ve already met a horrifying peak to
this ad. The baby’s mouth moves in unnatural movements
and several noises come out of it such as a manly psychotic laugh, and sirens. Tears fall from the dolls eyes as warfare
can be seen in their reflection. The tears are sucked back into the eyes and
the baby says “mama” as we see the PS3 floating from the ground.
The narrator's voice is so irritating. It's like a dude's valley-girl accent.