30 Times Advertisers Accidentally Made Horror Films Instead Of Commercials

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.