Five More Really Disturbing Commercials

Marketing and advertising executives are charged with the meticulous task of capturing our attention long enough to provoke the desire for their products. But sometimes things get a little out of hand. Television commercials intended to entice end up utilizing some pretty disquieting imagery. Then again, that these products are being mentioned says that someone is doing his/her job...

TV Commercial: Lipton Green Tea with Lemon
Disturbing Quality: Seafood Serenade

Imagine being in your local grocer's seafood section, when all of a sudden all of the crabs, whiting, salmon and shrimp start singing at you. I don't really know how seafood figures into a Lipton Green Tea with Lemon commercial; but somehow Lipton figures out a way to make it work. This ad features a woman walking through the market and all the seafood begins talking and singing at her. Very creepy.

TV Commercial: ASPCA
Disturbing Quality: For those who REALLY want to be depressed

I have nothing but love for Sarah McLachlan. But all of those ASPCA commercials featuring her music need to be taken off the air immediately. The ad is meant to tug at the heartstrings. The images, coupled with those forlorn puppies and kittens are simply too miserable for any human soul to bear.

TV Commercial: Pertussis Whooping Cough Vaccination
Disturbing Quality: Worse than kiddie porn

Babies and children require the world's protection. That's what this commercial for the whooping cough vaccine needs you to understand. However, they go a bit far in evoking a sense of urgency; in the background, an infant coughs and hacks violently. What's more-the sound editor made certain to surround the looped sound with reverb-so that the child's agony lingers in the brain a few seconds longer. It's just not right.

TV Commercial: Cheez-It Snack Crackers
Disturbing Quality: Sticks and stones...

A Cheez-It Quality Control officer is conducting tests to ensure that the cheese going into each little cracker has aged enough to make the cut. We see a block of cheddar cheese taunting the officer with lame 7^th grade jokes. This cheese isn't "mature" (get the joke?) and fails the test. The concept makes me chuckle. But I have deep psychological issues with being verbally harassed by a dairy product. There's nothing worse than sarcastic food.

TV Commercial: M&M Pretzel candies
Disturbing Quality: Candy Porn?

In this commercial for M&M's latest treat, we see a bright colored M&M candy standing in a laboratory. He's protesting against having a mini pretzel shoved into his candy cavity. The pretzel vocalizes the same sentiment. Yet only moments later, an X-ray reveals that the merging is complete. A new snack is born. Something about this image makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Torture candy porn doesn't suit my fancy. And I happen to like chocolate and pretzels.

SOURCES:

Way too much TV watching
Chocolate Cravings