January 18, 2007

Embrace the darkness

Scamp asks whether ads should be happy, and reveals that he and his creative partner are servants of the dark side. They prefer their ads to be dark, weird, and melancholy
In keeping with this mood, the first ad (if you can classify it as one) that sprang to mind when reading Scamp's post is this public information film that haunted British telly in the early 1970's.
Imagine being small and enjoying Rainbow, and then this video plays during the break.
My reaction upon seeing this for the first time remains etched upon my memory.
I cried and shat my pants.

7 comments:

opentoeveryone said...

Saw a re-run of Kathy Come Home recently. Shocking, moving depressing. One of the most culturally infuential films ever, in the UK anyway.

Cleaver said...

Never seen that spot before. Love it.

Particularly interesting in light of the discussion over at Scamp's about whether or not VOs are important. This ad wouldn't be anywhere near as effective as it is without the skill of the voice talent.

I'd love to know who it was.

SchizoFishNChimps said...

Oh that's easy. The voiceover is by the great Donald Pleasance.

RFB said...

Ahhh - Donald Pleasance, who did a great turn as the Prsident in the gawdawful Escape from New York w/ Kurt Russell.

That's a truly creepy little film - and I'll bet you stayed away from water for a long time.

greencan said...

I couldn't swim in deep water (even at the public pool) without hyperventilating after I saw JAWS. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have stepped into the bathtub if I'd seen that on top of it!

Alvin said...

There's something quite druidic about this film, which I can only approve of. Terrifying.

SchizoFishNChimps said...

It's the first appearance of Darth Sidious