Alex Carson
A scary advertisement, when done right, can do wonders for a company’s image and revenue. However, some advertisements turn out creepier than expected. Instead of promoting a brand, these commercials end up giving nightmares to viewers. Facts Verse Presents 12 Scariest TV Commercials (WARNING: Creepy!). Before we tell you about these scary videos, please like and subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon to stay updated about all our latest videos.
Kinder Joy’s Humpty Dumpty Commercial
As kids, all of us loved Kinder Joy. However, when we saw the Kinder Surprise commercial, we lost all interest in this chocolate candy that we so loved.
The 1984 Kinder Surprise commercial featured a creepy-looking Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall and blurting out random gibberish. This creepy Humpty Dumpty then opens the Kinder Joy egg and says ‘Chocadooby’. It pulls out the toy and then falls off the wall. The screen then reads ‘Surprise Chocolate Eggs’. Of course, the concept of the advertisement does not seem creepy at all. However, when you see Ferraro’s – the company that created the egg – bizarre version of Humpty Dumpty, you feel convinced that you do not ever want to eat Kinder Joy again.
McDonald’s First McDonald Ad
Ronald McDonald is a clown character who serves as the mascot of the fast-food chain McDonald’s. If you look at it closely, even now, this clown mascot is pretty bizarre and scary. However, back in the 1960s, when McDonald’s created its first advertisement, Ronald McDonald was far scarier. In this first advertisement, Willard Scott played Ronald McDonald. The creators of the commercial used a cup to create his nose and put on him a belt that magically churned out burgers. He also wore a pretty weird hat on his head. Willard Scott once said in an interview that he had played Bozo the Clown and WRC-TV and it was from there that he had picked the inspiration for Ronald McDonald. We don’t know where the inspiration came from, but the advertisement was certainly very creepy. Thankfully, the company decided to make their mascot more pleasant-looking with time.
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Little Baby’s Ice Cream’s ‘This is a Special Time’ Ad
Little Baby’s Ice Cream is another creepy commercial that features Malcolm, a self-cannibalistic man, made from ice cream. During the commercial, Malcolm enjoys spoons full of himself as a voice in the background tells us how much Malcolm loves ice-cream. The advertisement was created for a small ice-cream parlor in Philadelphia. Well, even though the advertisement was super scary, it did it was supposed to do, which is promote the brand.
Pete Angevine, the co-founder of Little Baby’s Ice Cream Shop and a struggling musician, was tired of living in a van and therefore, decided to open an ice cream shop. When the time came to design an ad, Peter considered ice cream an open canvas and therefore, decided to let his ideas run wild, which is what led to the Little Baby’s Ice Cream ad. Even though the ad gave nightmares to many, it also made the brand extremely popular. In 2018, Angevine was the owner of about half a dozen Little Baby’s Ice Cream stores and his ice cream shops’ revenue stood at close to $1 million. Any publicity is good publicity.
Remco’s Baby-Laugh-a-Lot doll Commercial
Before Chucky and that clown from Poltergeist who sent shivers down everyone’s spine, existed Baby Laugh A-Lot. Someone rightly said that this advertisement is perhaps the worst advertisement ever by a toy brand. The advertisement created by Remco featured a doll that did not just laugh but laughed like a drain, at once reminding one of all the evil forces in the world. All the kids in the commercial looked scared and ready to run right away. After watching the ad, we feel convinced that this doll, that gave children nightmares, was the real inspiration behind both Chucky and the clown in Poltergeist.
Orkin’s ‘Hot Tub’ and ‘Vacation’ Commercial
Orkin is an Atlanta-based provider of residential and commercial pest control services. Orkin has been quite innovative with its ads since the very beginning. The Orkin television ad that came out in the 50s featured Otto the Orkin Man, an animated spray can with human features. In the 1990s, Orkin released its ‘Exterminator’ ad, followed by the ‘Fake-Out’ campaign of the 2000s. Orkin has made several hilarious ads over the years. However, the two Orkin ads that were the funniest were also the creepiest.
Orkin’s ‘Hot Tub’ ad featured a giant-sized cockroach asking a couple if they were skinny dipping and if he could join them in their hot tub. The Orkin ‘Vacation’ ad showed a family returning from vacation only to find two gigantic rodents partying in their home. While both the ads drove home the point, looking at massive cockroaches and rats isn’t something we enjoy doing — the ads most certainly gave us the creeps.
Smokey Bear ‘Mask’ Advertisement
Smokey Bear is the U.S. Forest Service’s official mascot who appears in all Wildfire Prevention Campaigns put out by United States Forest Service, National Association of State Foresters (NASF), and Ad Council. All ads featuring Smokey Bear are conceptualized and created by the FCB advertising agency.
In 1973, a public service announcement released by the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) featured Joanna Cassidy as Smokey Bear. At the beginning of the commercial, Joanna Cassidy very seductively tells anyone who is watching how forests are a peaceful place where animals live but we are destroying forests. We are the ones who start forest fires (to be precise, it’s our cigarettes that are causing forest fires). And then she pulls off her mask and reveals herself as Smokey the Bear, who says “if you know it was me, would you have listened?” Fair point, but you didn’t have to make Joanna Cassidy have that piercing and menacing look.
Sugar Krinkles’ Krinkles the Clown
Before Ronald McDonald started giving us nightmares, there was another clown giving audiences the heebie-jeebies.
Sugar Coated Rice Krinkles was a cereal available until 1969. In 1969, the cereal changed its appearance to puffed rice cereal, and today, we know and buy this cereal called Fruity Pebbles. The original mascot of Sugar Coated Rice Krinkles was a rice-loving Chinese boy named So-Hi. So-Hi was known for his prominently Chinese accent and his hat which was essentially a bowl full of rice. However, in 1959, the company decided to change its mascot to a crazy-eyed clown named Krinkles. With this new mascot, the company launched a new advertisement, which we are certain was meant to scare children into eating this cereal. In the commercial, Krinkles pops out of a paper door and declares to the world how much he loves the sugar-coated cereal.
In truth, Krinkles wasn’t supposed to be scary. However, the black and white colors of the 1950s and the poor quality of the video make the entire thing nerve-wrenching.
Rejuvenique Electric Facial Mask
In 1999, the Rejuvenique released the Facial Toning Mask. Users were required to strap this weird-looking mask to their face. What’s more surprising was that this mask used electrical stimulation to tighten facial muscles. For best results, users were asked to wear the mask for at least 15 minutes thrice every week.
The commercial that the manufacturing company released to promote the mask was rather simple, it primarily discussed what the mask did. However, since the mask itself was so scary, it made the entire commercial scaring. After witnessing the reaction to the commercial and the product, the company rightly decided to take it off the market. However, if you want a costume for Halloween, you can buy this mask on Amazon.
Kleenex’s Cursed Japanese Commercial
Kleenex released this commercial in the 80s and it quickly became the weirdest ad on television. This commercial featured a beautiful woman dressed in white robes, sitting next to a young child who will either remind you of a vegetable or the devil himself. In the background we hear a creepy version of Jane and Barton’s ‘It’s a Fine Day.’
The ad was certainly weird but the rumors that started after the ad was released were far scarier. One particular rumor made people believe that several actors and crew members lost their lives after this ad. According to another rumor, actress Keiko Matsuzaka, who featured in the ad became pregnant with a demon child after the ad was released. Don’t worry, these are just rumors.
Norton Furniture’s Creepy Marc Commercial
Norton Furniture is a Cleveland, Ohio-based furniture store that became quite famous for its low-budget ads. The ‘Creepy Marc’ furniture featured Marc Brown, the owner of Norton Furniture. He has the kind of voice that will convince you that he is either a serial killer or a regular stoner. Though all of Norton Furniture’s low-budgets ads featuring Marc were weird in every way, they made the store as well as Marc quite popular, so much so that Marc has now made appearances on MTV and Super Bowl.
Lynx Chocolate Man
The Lynx Chocolate Man starts with a man spraying Axe Dark Temptation over his body. As soon as he puts the bottle back, he turns into a chocolate man. As this chocolate man takes a walk around the city, we see women sucking and chewing him away. Though the idea of the ad was good, its execution turned out to be rather bizarre. The scene where a woman takes a bite off the chocolate man’s butt is truly weird. Similarly, a cheery dude walking the streets as women pull out his arms and other parts is just plain creepy.
Burger King’s Wake up the King Ad
Burger King and CP+B, the advertising agency that the company works with, have been trying since 2004 to achieve success with ‘the king’. In 2004, Burger King released an ad called ‘Wake up with the King’. In this commercial, a man wakes up only to find Burger King’s super creepy ‘The King’ on his bed. The King then gives this man a breakfast sandwich and the man happily munches on it. As soon as the campaign hit the screens, blogs calling the new Burger King commercial creepy emerged all over the internet. However, in the world of advertisement, sometimes negative publicity is good publicity.
The concept of the commercial isn’t all that creepy. It is ‘the King’ with his unnaturally large head and never-changing expressions who makes this ad creepy. Many people thought that the King was actually Burger King’s answer to Ronald McDonald. However, that’s not the case. The King came to life when an agency executive ordered a massive head from Amazon. Creepy again, right?
Do you enjoy creepy advertisements? Which of the twelve discussed above did you find the creepiest? Are there any other creepy advertisements that we have missed? Please leave your comments in the comments sections.
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