A successful advertisement grabs viewers’ attention immediately. Whether it’s for makeup, a fast food restaurant or a new car, the goal is to make sure that consumers remember and seek out your products. But sometimes, companies take their marketing campaigns a little too far.
In honor of spooky season, Bored Panda has compiled a list of the creepiest and most unsettling commercials the world has ever seen. From zombies popping out of nowhere to people bathing in ice cream, these ads certainly were memorable (even if they didn’t inspire many sales). Enjoy scrolling through this master class of what not to do when creating a commercial, and be sure to upvote the ones that gave you the heebie-jeebies!
#1 K-Fee’s Scenic Terror Drive
German coffee brand K-Fee became famous for a series of commercials that were basically just horror movie jump scares. The best-known ad starts with a peaceful, relaxing shot of a car driving down a beautiful country lane. Just as you’re zoned out, a terrifying zombie suddenly lunges at the screen with a bloodcurdling scream. The tagline then appears, which translates to “You’ve never been so awake,” cleverly (and cruelly) linking the jolt of pure terror to the caffeine kick from their coffee.
Image source: Matthew Benson
#2 Ronald Under Your Bed
A series of Japanese McDonald’s commercials from the 2000s features a version of Ronald McDonald that is pure chaos. Instead of the jolly clown, this Ronald is a lanky, pale figure with a fixed, painted smile who communicates only through a series of high-pitched, bird-like squeaks and giggles. The ads show him silently appearing outside a young boy’s bedroom window at night, hiding under a girl’s bed, and running through dark alleys, making the whole thing feel more like a home invasion by a silent horror movie monster than a fun ad for burgers.
Image source: Nothing Stuff
#3 Childhood’s Fragile Monsters
A Finnish PSA about alcoholism shows kids being terrorized by creepy, life-sized monsters that no one else seems to see. These grotesque creatures, which represent the children’s drunk parents, roughly pull them around, slam car doors, and loom over them with a menacing presence. The ad is shot entirely from the kids’ terrified perspective, making it a powerful and deeply unsettling look at how a child experiences a parent’s addiction.
Image source: Fragile Childhood / Lasinen Lapsuus
#4 Little Baby’s Ice Cream “This Is A Special Time”
There’s an ad for Little Baby’s Ice Cream that is pure nightmare fuel. It features a person completely covered in white goo, staring into the camera with huge, unblinking eyes. They then slowly take a spoon, scoop the paste off their own head, and eat it, all while a deadpan voice talks about how much he loves his life. It’s one of the most unsettling things ever made to sell a sweet treat, feeling more like a found-footage horror clip than an actual commercial.
Image source: LittleBabysIceCream
#5 OG Creepy McDonald’s AD
The very first Ronald McDonald, who debuted in commercials in the 1960s, was a truly bizarre and unsettling figure. Portrayed by future weatherman Willard Scott, this original clown had a paper cup for a nose, a cardboard food tray balanced on his head as a hat, and a strange, almost sinister-looking face. In the ad, he waddles around with a jerky, puppet-like motion and can magically pull hamburgers out of a box on his belt. This strange, low-budget version is a far cry from the polished mascot we know today and remains one of the creepiest characters in advertising history.
Image source: VintageTVCommercials
#6 Starburst’s “Berries And Cream”
A Starburst ad from the mid-2000s introduced the world to the deeply strange “Little Lad.” The commercial features two friends on a park bench, who are interrupted by a man dressed in old-fashioned, pageboy-style clothing. When they mention the new “Berries and Cream” flavor, the Little Lad’s eyes light up, and he breaks into a bizarre, high-pitched song and dance, clapping his hands and kicking his feet while singing, “Berries and cream, I’m a little lad who loves berries and cream!” The character’s manic energy and unsettlingly cheerful performance made the ad an instant, creepy classic.
Image source: MarcoshanAU
#7 Mr. Soapy Commercial
A public health PSA, reportedly made for a US Air Force base, stars a talking soap dispenser named Mr. Soapy, complete with googly eyes and a creepy, photorealistic human mouth. He cheerfully reminds a soldier to wash his hands after using the restroom, but when the soldier ignores him, the ad takes a violent turn. Mr. Soapy’s face contorts in rage, his voice deepens, and he telekinetically slams the man into a wall. The ad’s bizarre blend of a friendly, kid-show-style mascot and a violent, psychopathic enforcer of hygiene makes it one of the weirdest and most unsettling PSAs.
Image source: Jay Aress
#8 American Horror Story | Season 6: Bite Me Promo | Fx
One of the creepiest promos for American Horror Story: Roanoke is a quick shot of a giant, hairy spider crawling out of a woman’s mouth. The camera is super close on her pale face as the spider’s spindly legs emerge from between her lips and scuttle across her cheek. It’s a classic mix of body horror and arachnophobia that hits all the wrong notes in just a few seconds, leaving you with a seriously gross and lingering image.
Image source: FX Networks
#9 X-Cite Mints Combating Dog Breath
An ad for X-cite mints gets disgustingly literal with the concept of “dog breath.” It shows a man sleeping on a couch who suddenly starts to gag. But instead of throwing up, an entire, live dog emerges from his mouth and plops onto the floor. The stomach-turning visual of a man essentially birthing a dog from his throat is a truly unforgettable and deeply weird way to sell breath mints.
Image source: Asylum Models & Effects
#10 Japan’s Cami Ad With Dancing Babies
A series of Japanese commercials for the Toyota Cami is a masterclass in early CGI weirdness, starring an army of uncanny, dancing babies. These diaper-clad infants, with their jerky, synchronized moves and dead-eyed stares, perform elaborate dance routines around the car in a variety of bizarre settings, including on a giant vinyl record, on a snowy mountaintop, and even while snowboarding through the sky. The ads’ surreal and deeply unsettling quality, a hallmark of a certain era of Japanese advertising, made them an unforgettable and creepy classic.
Image source: AdCentral
#11 NRJ Mobile
A French commercial for NRJ Mobile starts with a girl laughing at her phone, but it gets weird fast. Her mouth unhinges to a horrifyingly massive size, like her head is about to split in two. Then, her friend looks at the phone and does the same thing, her jaw dropping to an unnatural degree. The ad repeatedly rewinds and fast-forwards this creepy moment, and if that wasn’t enough, there’s another version where their eyeballs literally pop out of their heads and float above their gaping mouths.
Image source: BuzzmanTV, cursed-commercials.fandom.com
#12 Snickers Halloween Grocery Store Lady
Snickers ran a Halloween ad that was more unsettling than funny, featuring a woman in a grocery store being approached by another “woman” with a creepy, oversized mask for a face. This strange lady knows the shopper’s name and starts aggressively piling Snickers into her cart, insisting she needs them for trick-or-treaters. The whole thing is revealed to be two kids in a trench coat, but the initial encounter with the uncanny, masked figure who knows who you are is genuinely unnerving.
Image source: Alex Taylor
#13 McDonald’s Unignorable Banners
For a series of “unignorable” banner ads, McDonald’s decided to get a little meta and creepy. Instead of a normal ad, they featured a person staring out from the banner, pointing directly at your cursor. As you moved your mouse around the screen, the person’s eyes and head would follow your every move, making it feel like you were being watched from inside the ad and making it impossible to ignore.
Image source: adsoftheworldvideos, catapultx.medium.com
#14 Quiznos Ads
The Quiznos commercials from the early 2000s were famously bizarre, featuring two rodent-like creatures called the Spongmonkeys. These crudely animated, googly-eyed things would burst into a discordant song, screaming about how much they loved the subs in a high-pitched, off-key mess. The combination of their grotesque appearance and their manic, atonal singing about “the moon” and “tasty meats” made the ads both impossible to forget and incredibly, incredibly weird.
Image source: magicalme394
#15 Skittles Yoghurt Boy
In a surreal and creepy ad for Skittles Dips, a wealthy young man orders his butler, Higgins, to fetch him more “yogurty coated Skittles.” The terrified butler walks through the mansion to a dark pantry where he finds the “Yogurt Boy”, a pale, slimy, humanoid creature. With a pair of tongs, Higgins dips a Skittle into the goo on the creature’s body, causing it to let out a series of bizarre, high-pitched shrieks before presenting the candy to his master, who casually asks for more.
Image source: Maxwell Montes
#16 Airheads Subway Commercial
In a commercial for Airheads candy, a group of friends on a subway eat the chewy treats, and their heads immediately inflate to grotesque, bobblehead-like proportions. Their giant heads then detach from their bodies and start floating around the train car like human balloons. The truly bizarre kicker comes at the end, when an elderly woman who has been watching the spectacle simply smiles and pulls out her own bag of Airheads, ready to join in on the weirdness.
Image source: Moonlighting Commercials, cursed-commercials.fandom.com
#17 Japanese Amazon “Human Face Dog” Ad
To promote a new comedy show in Japan, Amazon ran a series of ads featuring unsettling “human face dogs.” These ads showed different dog breeds trotting around, but with the superimposed, deadpan faces of middle-aged men. The weirdly realistic and completely expressionless human faces on the dogs’ bodies created a bizarre and uncanny effect that was impossible to look away from.
Image source: AdCentral
#18 Mike’s Hard Iced Tea Commercial
In an ad for Mike’s Hard Iced Tea, a depressed office worker tells his female colleague that he thinks he’s grown a second, evil head. The camera then reveals a literal second head sprouting from his collar, complete with a leering expression. While his normal head looks miserable, the evil one crudely checks out their coworker, making the whole situation a bizarre and uncomfortable mix of body horror and workplace harassment.
Image source: GangOfEriks, encyclopedia.com
#19 The Kinder Surprise Is Not So Kind
An old ’80s commercial for Kinder Surprise features a creepy, sentient egg-man that looks like a reject Humpty Dumpty. He sits on a wall, speaks in a bizarre, nonsensical language, and wiggles a single, tiny finger at the camera in a way that’s deeply unsettling. The combination of his weird, high-pitched gibberish and the uncanny valley look of the egg itself makes you wonder what kind of horrifying “surprise” is actually waiting inside that chocolate.
Image source: NeoFritker
#20 Gushers Commercials
The Gushers commercials from the ’90s were a masterclass in surreal body horror for kids. In these ads, anyone who ate the candy would have their head instantly and grotesquely transform into a giant, realistic piece of fruit. They doubled up the weird with a series of ads where people were tasting things like hand soap and squid ink, thinking it would gush like a gusher. How wrong they were…
Image source: Commercials Ads
#21 “Mental Wealth” Playstation Advert
In a 1999 ad for the PlayStation, a Scottish girl with an unnervingly alien-like appearance talks directly to the camera about “mental wealth.” Her digitally altered, tear-shaped head and huge, black eyes create a completely uncanny and almost extraterrestrial look. The ad’s bizarre, philosophical monologue and its strange, otherworldly visuals were part of a campaign that aimed to position the console as a mind-bending, almost surreal experience, but the result was just plain creepy.
Image source: PlayStation Europe
#22 Two Horses Salon Commercial
A bizarre short ad, simply titled “Two Horses,” features a man approaching two women who are wearing incredibly realistic and creepy horse masks. As the man nervously asks them who they are, the “horses” just stare blankly and start uttering bizarre sounds. With little to no explanation about the establishment, it leaves the viewer to wonder what they just watched.
Image source: Jessi Preston
#23 Halo Top’s “Eat The Ice Cream”
A bizarre and dystopian ad for Halo Top ice cream plays out like a scene from a sci-fi horror movie. It shows an elderly woman who wakes up in a sterile, all-white room, where a friendly-looking robot begins to force-feed her ice cream. As the woman becomes more distressed and confused, the robot’s cheerful demeanor turns sinister, repeatedly commanding her to “eat the ice cream” and delivering the chilling line, “Everyone you love is gone. There is only ice cream.” The ad’s bleak, psychological horror is a truly unforgettable way to sell a low-calorie dessert.
Image source: Mike Diva
#24 Mamá Lucchetti Comercial From Argentina
A series of Argentinean commercials for the food brand Lucchetti features a bizarre cast of CGI characters that are more horrifying than charming. The ads center on a family of lanky, unnaturally flexible humanoids with giant, dead-looking eyes, including a mother figure who resembles a noodle-limbed alien. Their jerky, unnatural movements and uncanny valley design turned what was meant to be a quirky ad campaign into pure, unintentional nightmare fuel.
Image source: mamalucchettioficial
#25 Creepy PSA From The UK About Swimming In Open Water
A notoriously creepy British PSA from the ’70s personifies “dark and lonely water” as a grim reaper-like figure in a black cloak. Voiced by actor Donald Pleasence, this sinister spirit watches gleefully as children fall into dangerous water, hissing about the “ironic” fact that the water that gives life can also take it away. The ad ends with the chilling promise, “I’ll be back,” a threat that terrified a generation of kids and made them scared of so much as stepping in a puddle.
Image source: Zone Horror, listverse.com
#26 Rejuvenique Electric Facial Mask Infomercial
A 90s infomercial for the Rejuvenique facial mask is the stuff of nightmares, mainly because the product looks exactly like a horror movie prop. The ad features women calmly wearing what is essentially a white, featureless mask, identical to the one worn by Jason Voorhees, while it sends electric shocks to their faces. The promise was that these shocks would tone facial muscles, but the terrifying appearance of the device itself made it one of the most unintentionally creepy beauty products ever marketed.
Image source: Infomercial Hell, digitalspy.com
#27 The Lynx Chocolate Man
A UK ad for Lynx body spray, known as Axe in the US, features a man made entirely of chocolate who seems absolutely thrilled to be eaten alive by women. He cheerfully offers up his own fingers and nose for them to devour, all while sporting a manic grin. The whole thing is played for laughs, but a sentient chocolate man gleefully participating in his own cannibalistic demise is just deeply, deeply creepy.
Image source: Advertisement, digitalspy.com
#28 Kewpie Tarako Spaghetti From Japan
A Japanese commercial for Kewpie Tarako Spaghetti is a surreal and deeply unsettling experience. The ad features a young girl eating pasta while an army of “Tarako Kewpies” (creepy, baby-like figures with red, fish-egg bodies) march toward her in a synchronized, cult-like procession, all while chanting “Tarako, Tarako” in a high-pitched, monotone voice. The sheer number of these bizarre, smiling creatures and their relentless march makes the entire commercial feel like a fever dream.
Image source: 中あたる
#29 Yoki Japanese Ad
To promote a men’s entertainment magazine in Japan, this bizarre ad uses a figure from Japanese folklore called the Rokurokubi. The commercial shows a woman whose neck stretches to an absurd and unsettling length while reading the magazine. She is a creepy and surreal visual meant to capture the magazine’s edgy, underground appeal.
Image source: AdCentral
#30 BBQ Peperami Advert
A commercial for BBQ Peperami puts its famously manic mascot, “The Animal,” in a truly horrifying spot. The sentient, green sausage creature is shown lying on a sizzling hot barbecue grill, letting out a pained scream as a giant fork flips him over. It’s all played for dark comedy, but the sight of a cartoon meat stick being cooked alive while yelling makes for some seriously unsettling television.
Image source: Lee Trott, cursed-commercials.fandom.com
#31 Duracell Commercial
A bizarre 90s ad campaign for Duracell introduced the Puttermans, a family of unsettling, stiff-jointed robots. Their whole deal was that they outlasted everyone else because they used Duracell batteries. The creepiest part, though, was in one specific ad where the dad, Herb, knocks the grandma over, causing her to fall apart on the floor. Instead of helping, the entire robot family just stands there and breaks into this eerie, mechanical laughter. The combination of the uncanny valley puppets and their casual cruelty toward their own grandmother made the whole thing incredibly weird and memorable for all the wrong reasons.
Image source: 90s Commercials, cursed-commercials.fandom.com
#32 Gainomax Scary Monkey
An energy drink ad for Gainomax starts out as a bizarre parody of The Ring, complete with a creepy girl in a white room and ominous whispering. Things get weirder when the girl, who turns out to be a talking monkey in a wig, warns viewers that “bananas are for monkeys” and that they should stop eating her food. The combination of the horror movie tropes, the unsettling monkey-girl, and the nonsensical message makes for a truly confusing and creepy commercial.
Image source: Gustav Egerstedt, cursed-commercials.fandom.com
#33 Little Baby’s Ice Cream
Just when you thought Little Baby’s Ice Cream couldn’t get any weirder, they released an ad called “Eyes Scream” that features people with mouths where their eyes should be. As a reversed music box plays, these eye-mouths open and close while a voiceover twists the classic jingle into the deeply unsettling phrase, “Eyes scream, you scream…” The whole thing is shot through a weird, kaleidoscopic filter, creating a surreal and stomach-churning piece of body horror that somehow is meant to make you crave a scoop of ice cream.
Image source: LittleBabysIceCream, cursed-commercials.fandom.com
#34 Autoway Tires In Japan
A Japanese ad for Autoway tires plays out like a found-footage horror short. Filmed from inside a car driving down a snowy road at night, the passengers spot a ghostly woman in a white dress standing in the distance. In a classic jump scare, she suddenly slams against their windshield with a terrifying shriek. The car then violently reverses, demonstrating the tires’ excellent traction while the passengers scream in terror, making for a genuinely scary and effective commercial.
Image source: andre andrea
#35 Japanese Burger King Commercial
A Japanese Burger King commercial for a five-patty Whopper gets weirdly anatomical. To show how you can “eat like a snake,” the ad features a man’s jaw unhinging to an impossible degree. As he shoves the massive burger into his mouth, the animation shows the entire thing sliding down his throat in one giant, undigested lump, just like a snake swallowing its prey. The R’nB “Eat Like Snake” jingle in the background isn’t doing much good either.
Image source: Andreu Volkova Katina
#36 “You Cannot Beat Us” Commercial For Nintendo
A vintage Nintendo commercial from the NES era is famous for being more intimidating than fun. The ad features a blocky, early-CGI head that speaks in a menacing robot voice, repeatedly taunting the viewer with the phrase, “You cannot beat us.” This creepy digital host, along with other crudely rendered characters from classic games, directly challenges all players, creating a bizarrely confrontational and unforgettable piece of 80s marketing that felt more like a threat from a dystopian future than an invitation to play.
Image source: lingpanda101
#37 SCOEE10X Odor Remover Ads
An ad for the pet odor eliminator SCOE 10X stars a person in a full-body cat costume that lands deep in the uncanny valley. This human-cat hybrid, complete with grey makeup, a blonde wig, and cat ears, reacts with theatrical disgust to the smell of a giant litter box in the middle of a bedroom. The whole thing is bizarrely unsettling, especially when the hybrid creature decides to do her business on the living room floor, a sight you could live without seeing.
Image source: StealthPornucopia
#38 Tom Campbell Political Smear Add
A truly bizarre political attack ad against Republican candidate Tom Campbell starts out peacefully, showing idyllic scenes of sheep grazing in rolling green hills. The ad then takes a sharp, surreal turn into horror by revealing one of the sheep is a “demon” with glowing red eyes, meant to represent Campbell as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” The combination of the ominous narration, the lightning strikes, and the cheap, uncanny look of the red-eyed sheep costume turned what could have been a standard political smear into one of the most memorably weird and creepy campaign commercials of all time.
Image source: GrahamAndFriends
#39 WSPA “Happy Bear” Commercial From Germany
A German PSA for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) uses the visual language of a horror film to expose the cruelty behind “dancing bears.” The ad, titled “Happy Bear,” shows a person in a grimy workshop violently cutting and assembling a wooden bear puppet with power tools. The frantic, disturbing process is intercut with graphic images of a real bear’s suffering, culminating in the finished puppet being forced to “dance” by a string, drool dripping from its nose. The ad’s message is a gut punch: what looks like a performance is actually the result of “captivity, torture, or dance until death.”
Image source: Eric Lin
#40 Fisher-Price’s Linkimals Commercials
An ad for Fisher-Price’s Linkimals toys goes for a bizarre, almost creepy vibe by setting the scene in a magical forest populated by strange, humanoid animals. The commercial features a talking sloth with unnervingly human-like teeth and a moose in a sweater, all interacting with a man who looks like a forest spirit. The surreal and slightly unsettling “circle of life” theme is used to demonstrate how the toys are all “connected,” creating a weird, cult-like atmosphere before it finally cuts to a normal toddler playing with the toys in a backyard.
Image source: Mattel
#41 Lectric Shave Man Commercial – Starring Actor Carlos Del Olmo
In a truly bizarre ad for Lectric Shave, a shirtless man in a drill sergeant hat screams at his own face in the mirror, ordering his “lazy stubble” to fall in. The commercial then cuts to a microscopic view of his beard, where each individual hair follicle is a tiny, screaming man with the actor’s face. After he slaps on the pre-shave lotion, the whole army of little face-hairs stands at attention, ready to be mowed down by the electric razor. It’s a surreal and creepy bit of body horror that imagines your five-o’clock shadow as a military unit in need of discipline.
Image source: Carlos del olmo
#42 Jay Jay The Little Airplane With Light, Sound, And Movement Ditoys (2004-2005)
A commercial for a toy based on the children’s show Jay Jay the Jet Plane is notoriously creepy due to its bizarre character design. The toy, like the character in the show, is a cartoon airplane with a strangely realistic and fleshy human face grafted onto its nose. The ad shows this uncanny creation rolling around on the floor while children watch, but its fixed, smiling face and dead-eyed stare turn what is meant to be a friendly toy into pure, unintentional nightmare fuel.
Image source: Un Usuario Cualquiera
#43 Orkin Hot Tub Commercial
An Orkin commercial takes a horror-comedy approach by showing a couple relaxing in their hot tub, only to be joined by a giant, human-sized roach. The unsettling part isn’t just the massive pest, but its sleazy personality; it tries to flirt with them as it gets ready to skinny dip. The ad’s effectiveness comes from this bizarre combination of a disgusting creature with unnervingly human behavior, making your skin crawl while you laugh.
Image source: kayakdaddy, digitalspy.com
#44 Vintage Cereal Commercial
A vintage ad for Post Sugar Rice Krinkles featured one of the most unsettling mascots of the ’60s: Krinkles the Clown. In the commercial, the black-and-white clown bursts out of a circus hen house and cheerfully eats a bowl of the cereal. This ad wasn’t intended to be creepy, but few things can compare to the sinister nature of a clown high on sugar.
Image source: Artinistus
#45 Baby-Laugh-A-Lot Ad
An old 1970s commercial for a doll called “Baby Laugh-a-Lot” is unintentionally terrifying, mainly because of the doll’s maniacal, non-stop laughter. Her relentless, almost hysterical cackle is so infectious that it makes the little girl playing with her and even the male announcer break down into fits of deranged giggling. The whole thing feels less like a fun playtime and more like everyone in the ad has been driven completely insane by this one creepy doll’s endless, echoing laughter.
Image source: dspikey
#46 Baby Secret Whispers Just To You
A vintage commercial for a Mattel doll called “Baby Secret” is legendary for being pure nightmare fuel. The doll’s main gimmick was that she would “whisper” secrets when you pulled a string, but the voice that came out was a slow, raspy, and deeply unsettling whisper that sounded anything but childlike. The ad uses creepy, extreme close-ups of the doll’s vacant eyes and moving mouth as she says ominous things like, “I want to tell you something,” and “I know a secret, do you?” making her feel less like a fun toy and more like a tiny, haunted confidant.
Image source: Brian R
#47 Croissan’wich Breakfast Sandwich From Burger King
A Burger King ad from the mid-2000s took a turn for the creepy by showing a man waking up in his bed, only to find the giant-headed, silent, and smiling Burger King mascot lying right next to him. The King offers him a breakfast sandwich, and the whole encounter is bizarrely intimate, from the mascot’s silent staring to the final, awkward moment where they both place their hands on the man’s knee. The ad feels more like a home invasion by a terrifying stalker than a promotion for a fast-food breakfast.
Image source: Nutbunnes
#48 Clear Eyes Drops Commercial With Ben Stein
The Clear Eyes commercials from the ’90s were famously unsettling, all thanks to the horrifying way they depicted red eyes. The ads always featured Ben Stein in his signature monotone, calmly talking you through the magic of these drops.
Image source: pikespice
#49 The Original “Got Milk?” Campaign (1993): A Frightening Fomo
One of the most famous “Got Milk?” commercials, directed by a young Michael Bay, is a masterclass in high-stakes absurdity. The ad centers on a history buff sitting in his apartment, which is a literal museum dedicated to the Alexander Hamilton-Aaron Burr duel. When a radio DJ offers $10,000 for the answer to “Who shot Alexander Hamilton?”, the man knows the answer but can’t say it because his mouth is full of a giant peanut butter sandwich. His frantic, muffled attempts to say “Aaron Burr” are useless, and when he reaches for the milk carton, he finds it empty, leading to a moment of pure, dairy-deprived despair as he loses the prize.
Image source: Retro Rabbit Ears
#50 Freddy Freaker
A low-budget 80s commercial for a party hotline introduced the world to the bizarre and manic character, Freddy Freaker. The ad features a strange, Gremlin-like puppet with wild hair and a punk rock aesthetic, dancing frantically to a rock track. Freddy encourages kids to call his 1-900 number to hear jokes and weird sounds, all while he spastically jerks around on screen. The combination of the cheap puppet, the high-energy but slightly off-putting performance, and the sheer randomness of it all has made him a cult classic of creepy 80s advertising.
Image source: toxicfrancium
#51 Long Nose McDonald’s Commercial
A bizarre McDonald’s ad for coffee starts with a man smiling, but he has an unnervingly long, Pinocchio-like nose. As the camera slowly pans down the length of it, a simple whistling tune plays. The creepy twist comes when it’s revealed that the whistling is being performed by another man with an equally long nose. The surreal and quiet scene is then suddenly shattered by the words “WAKE UP!” flashing on screen, delivering a jump scare that’s meant to feel like the jolt from a strong cup of coffee. Not the way we typically like to enjoy our mornings!
Image source: BrandFreakTwo
#52 Life Alert Commercial – 0041
“Help, I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!” This famous line comes from a Life Alert commercial that doubles as a horror short. The first half is an agonizingly slow pan through a silent house, set only to the desperate, pained cries of an elderly woman who has fallen and is unable to move. Her helpless pleas for someone, anyone, to help her are genuinely chilling, preying on the very real fear of being alone and vulnerable in an emergency. The ad’s effectiveness comes from trapping the viewer in this moment of pure dread before finally offering its product as the only escape.
Image source: Life Alert
#53 Eagle Snacks
A truly nightmarish ad for Eagle Snacks, titled “Joe Meets Face,” starts with a guy waking up to find a disembodied, talking head with a creepy smile stuck to his closet door, asking if he has anything to eat. The ad then launches into a surreal and unsettling montage where this floating “Face” relentlessly haunts the poor guy, showing up on his girlfriend’s body, attached to a tennis racket, and even chasing him on a broom. The whole bizarre ordeal ends when the guy finally gives in and pours a bag of chips directly into the floating head’s mouth, landing on the perfect, creepy tagline: “What you feed your face.”
Image source: NoNoseJob's VHS Dump
#54 The Creepy Animation Night Bunny
A profoundly weird and creepy ad for an animation festival is set in a dingy public restroom. A guy casually pushes open a stall door, only to reveal a person in a cheap, horrifying Bugs Bunny costume sitting on the toilet, staring out with giant, dead eyes. The silent, awkward standoff between the man and the uncanny bunny creates a tense and surreal atmosphere, perfectly setting the stage for the “Creepy Animation Night” the ad is promoting. Mission accomplished!
Image source: arveriotoceri
#55 Pub Loo Shocker PSA
A brutally effective PSA against drunk driving uses a terrifying jump scare to deliver its message. The ad, shot like security camera footage, shows a man innocently washing his hands in a pub bathroom. Without any warning, the bloody and mangled face of a car crash victim violently smashes into the mirror from the other side, shattering the glass. The shocking and unexpected horror is meant to represent the sudden, violent “impact” that having just one drink can have on someone’s night.
Image source: Leo Burnett
#56 Kleenex Commercial
A notoriously creepy Japanese commercial for Kleenex from the 1980s has been the subject of urban legends for decades. The ad features a woman in white sitting on a bed of straw with a small, red, demon-like child who has a green wig and a horn. As a gentle but unsettling song plays, the woman offers a tissue to the creature, but it’s rejected, and the Kleenex floats away on its own. The commercial’s bizarre, surreal, and almost sinister atmosphere was so unnerving that it famously sparked a myth that the ad was cursed and that misfortune befell its cast and crew.
Image source: derioderio
#57 Missing Our Deals Will Haunt You
A brilliant series of ads for the UK mobile retailer Phones4u perfectly mimicked classic horror movie scenes. In one of the most famous spots, a man is seen running for his life through a dark, misty forest until he’s finally cornered by a creepy, pale-faced ghoul. But instead of eating him, the monster just calmly points out a great deal on a new phone. The entire campaign was built around the fantastic tagline, “Missing our deals will haunt you,” and another ad featuring a ghostly little girl was so scary it generated hundreds of official complaints.
Image source: Nostalgix
#58 Campbells Snowman Horror Commercial
A beloved but deeply unsettling Campbell’s Soup ad from the 80s features a lonely-looking snowman shivering outside in the cold. He’s invited inside for a warm bowl of chicken noodle soup, but as he eats the hot soup, the commercial takes a dark turn. You watch as he slowly and happily melts to death, his coal eyes drooping and his face becoming a distorted, mushy mess. He finally dissolves into a puddle on the dining room floor, revealing a warm, happy little boy in his place. The core creepiness comes from the simple fact that the snowman is cheerfully consuming the very thing that’s destroying him.
Image source: ewjxn
#59 Baby Bottle Pop Nightmare
A late-90s ad for Twisted Baby Bottle Pops had a bizarre and unsettling premise. After two boys eat the candy, their heads suddenly become bald, chubby, and baby-like. The creepy horror of a child’s head morphing into a giant baby’s face, complete with a goofy expression, was supposed to show how the candy would “bring out the baby in you.” The ad’s weird special effects and the unsettling transformation made it a memorable, if slightly disturbing, piece of candy advertising.
Image source: 90s Nostalgia
#60 Cadbury’s “Gorilla Drummer”
A truly iconic ad from Cadbury features a gorilla sitting at a drum set in a purple-lit studio. For the first minute, the commercial just holds on an intense, almost emotional close-up of the gorilla’s face as the atmospheric opening of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” plays. The suspense builds until the song’s legendary drum fill, at which point the gorilla comes to life, launching into a passionate and surprisingly powerful drum solo. The ad’s brilliance lies in its absolute, glorious randomness as it has nothing to do with chocolate until the very end, creating a bizarre, hypnotic, and unforgettable piece of advertising.
Image source: Advert Commercial
#61 Snickers’ “Hunger Strike” Commercial
A classic Snickers ad from the “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign gets its creepy-funny vibe from a truly bizarre transformation. The commercial showed everyday people transform into monstrous versions of themselves when they were hungry. The whole campaign is built on the hilarious but unsettling premise that being hungry doesn’t just make you grumpy, it literally turns you into a different, often scary, person.
Image source: tvrexs
#62 Baby Doll PS3 Ad
A famously bizarre and creepy commercial for the PlayStation 3 is set in a sterile, all-white room where a baby doll sits alone across from the new console. The doll then begins to exhibit a rapid and unsettling series of emotions, from laughing maniacally to crying realistic tears. The whole thing culminates in a deeply unnerving shot where the doll’s eyes glow a demonic orange as it stares at the PS3, a surreal and disturbing sequence meant to convey the powerful, almost overwhelming emotional experience of the new “Play B3yond” system.
Image source: EtienneValencienne
#63 Vintage Love’s Commercial
A notoriously creepy vintage commercial for a perfume called Love’s Baby Soft is built on a deeply unsettling premise. The ad features an adult woman, dressed in childlike clothing, who seductively licks a lollipop while staring directly into the camera. A male voiceover explains that the perfume has the “innocent scent of a cuddly, clean baby” that has “grown up to be very sexy,” and the whole thing ends with the tagline, “Because innocence is sexier than you think.” The commercial’s deliberate and uncomfortable effort to sexualize the concept of baby-like innocence has made it one of the most infamous and weird ads of all time.
Image source: robatsea2009
#64 Carlton Draught’s “Big Ad”
A truly epic and bizarre commercial for Carlton Draught beer, titled “Big Ad,” starts with a massive choir of hundreds of men in yellow and red robes running through a vast, mountainous landscape. Set to a booming, dramatic score, they sing about how they are in “a big ad,” a “very big ad.” The whole thing is a hilarious and over-the-top parody of epic movie battles, like those in Lord of the Rings. The surreal spectacle culminates with the thousands of singers forming the giant, moving shape of a man drinking a beer, a brilliantly weird and self-aware punchline for a simple product.
Image source: Funkuncle
#65 ‘Grim Reaper’ Ad Campaign For AIDS Awareness
A notoriously terrifying Australian PSA about the AIDS epidemic from the 1980s takes a surreal and apocalyptic approach. The ad portrays the Grim Reaper as a bowler in a dark, smoky alley. But instead of bowling pins, the Reaper is knocking down people from all walks of life who are then consumed by smoke. The ad’s brilliance comes from turning a simple game into a horrifying metaphor for an indiscriminate plague, creating one of the most stark and chilling public health warnings ever put on television.
Image source: Double Denim Days
#66 The Alton Towers Oblivion Advert
This ad for the Alton Towers roller coaster “Oblivion” is pure psychological horror. Shot in black and white with a grainy, industrial feel, the commercial is a rapid-fire montage of unsettling imagery, including terrified faces, distorted close-ups, and ominous messages. The ad is designed to feel like a disturbing experimental film, building a sense of dread and unease rather than showcasing a fun ride. The whole thing culminates with the terrifying tagline, “Don’t look down,” making the entire experience a creepy and masterful piece of marketing.
Image source: MerlinMedia
#67 Creepy KFC Lie Detector Ad From The 60s
This vintage KFC ad plays out like a bizarre psychological thriller. It shows Colonel Sanders strapped to a chair in a dark room, surrounded by an angry mob of women who are demanding his secret recipe. The commercial takes a deeply creepy turn with a series of distorted, slow-motion close-ups on the Colonel’s face as he lists ingredients, making it look like his face is melting. Combined with the aggressive interrogation and the Colonel’s final, maniacal laugh, the whole ad feels more like a hostage video from a weird cult than a promotion for fried chicken.
Image source: Veronica Gwynn
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