Comments on: The Ad Council’s Greatest Hits

By: LadyBluebell

LadyBluebell — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:12:07 +0000

Not sure if these were PSAs or ads.
One was an anti-smoking message where the attractive woman dressed in black and lying down on a divan, says sexily, “Light me, Harry,” and sends a wave down this freaking long cigarette – the guy at the other end lights it and follows it up the long staircase to find an old hag who yells after him, “Come back! Come back Harry! (cough cough, hack)” – underlying message: smoking ages you really fast.
The other is one of those Smokey the Bear cartoons where this guy is trying to put out a campfire, stamps on it with his boot and the boot goes up in a puff of smoke, then the fire spreads and chases him as he runs with one boot off and one boot on (my fave part cuz of the sound of the boot vs the bare foot hitting the ground) – he runs face first into a fire hose and gets his nose stuck – says “Help” and the hose fills up with water and sends him AND the fire packing… message: use water to drown your campfires.
Both used humor to get their point across. Both came out in the 70s and 80s, and were replaced by other (possibly less effective) messages. Wish they’d bring back a few of those old ones.

By: Ian Cooper

Ian Cooper — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:27:59 +0000

PSAs here in the US are all too often nationalistic garbage. I wish the Ad Council would stop telling us how freaking lucky we are to live here, and instead start telling us what we need to be doing to make America even better!

By: Neisha

Neisha — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:21:45 +0000

@John. That McFaden and Whitehead commercial creeps. Me. Out.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:12:00 +0000

I remember hearing the “I learned it by watching you!” kid was at the time in a somewhat known band but I can’t remember what it was now. Anybody?

By: leigha hoffner

leigha hoffner — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:23:00 +0000

Hello,

My name is Leigha Hoffner and I am the mother of a 3 year old son named Jamil. My son has a deadly rare genetic disease called Bassen Kornzweig Syndrome. This disease is costing my son his eye sight, he cannot speak, and is severely delayed. This disease has no cure and the only treatment available only helps prolong blindness. My sonâ€™s life expectancy is 5 years old. Because of what he and my family have been through I have started a foundation called A Cure for Bassen Kornzweig Foundation. However, right now my sonâ€™s doctor is unable to treat him anymore because she does not know what else to do with him. My son according to experts is the only one in this state that has this disease and from the 17 different doctors that we have been to not a single one of them have heard of this nor know how to treat him. I am a mother and I do not want my son to die. I have no other options. I do not know what else to do to help save my son but I will not stop in my efforts. I am asking for your help in any way that you can, from referrals to doctors, helping bring awareness of this disease to supporting the foundation, to sponsoring my son and the other little boys who have this disease so that we can find a cure.

I cannot image what life will be like without my son or how badly the world will suffer from him not being here.

Thank you and God bless you for helping.

Leigha Hoffner and Jamil

By: kelleylogan

kelleylogan — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:52:00 +0000

Um…Canadian PSA’s scare me. Alot. Has that ever happened? Jeez….

By: analyst

analyst — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:20:00 +0000

I think this one was local (North Carolina), but does anyone remember Mr. Did? He was an anti-litter superhero in green sweats if I remember correctly…

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:38:00 +0000

Ditto about the girl’s body floating beneath the water that filled up her bedroom. Eerie

Also creepy – the Mormon commercial about the kid who tells a lie, then all of these freaks start hounding him and singing a sinister-sounding song: “When you tell one lie, it leads to another; then you tell two lies to cover each other…”

One that used to run on Saturday mornings about how we should eat our cheese had some cartoon cowboy singing “I hanker fer a hunk of cheese!” Then he put a slice of cheese in between 2 huge round crackers and said “Look, a wagon wheel!” Yeeeee-haw!

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:32:00 +0000

There’s one I remember from the late 60s which showed a boy throwing a rock in the air. They then cut to a little girl wearing glasses. The rock hit the glasses, and the lenses shattered and cut her up. The commercial then ended with a warning about making sure your kids’ glasses were shatterproof (no warning about being hit in the face with a rock).

I think it was a PSA- I was about 4 when I saw it, but it’s scarred me forever. I was especially scared a few years later when I needed to get glasses. I still think about it every so often.

By: Lu

Lu — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:04:00 +0000

While it wasn’t a short PSA, there was a cartoon we were made to watch each year in our guidance counselor in-class things…I forget what they were called. Anyway, it was a lot of Warner Bros. (and other) cartoon characters trying to save a kid from marijuana. It troubled me…Bugs saying, “Is that a blunt?”