Oddity Archive: Episode 45 - PSA's (or, The More You Know, The Less You Understand)
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
- ...seemingly the only place in which mimes with health problems, singing raccoons and stressed mothers can live in perfect harmony.
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The one about verbal abuse is horrible. Like literally, it hurts, in my heart. What a good PSA.
That one hit too hard to home.
I remember the "Words Hurt" PSA...was 8 when it started airing, and it really shook me that a parent could ever speak to their child that way!
*in the middle of class* *hums VD song* classmate: dude what are you doing? Me: AAAANNNY ONE CAN GET VD!
@Maryse Bowen Venereal Disease - an STD.
As Bill Hicks once said
"Here's your brain, here's your brain on drugs", "Just Say No", "Why do you think they call it dope?" … And then the next commercial is [singing] "This Bud's for yooouuuu." C'mon, everybody, let's be hypocritical bastards."
well the beer ads do have "please drink responsibly" on them.
in 12 PT font
Well alcohol has been 'grandfathered in' since it's been around since antiquity (the Ancient Egyptians made a type of beer and there was wine in Ancient Rome). That, and people have very few vices and will do anything to protect them. Of course, now pot is being legalized left and right so times they are a changin'.
Just remember, the drug war was started merely to put blacks and hippies in jail since it wasn't against the law for them to merely be that way (and the Civil Rights Act had been passed not too long beforehand).
Can I get some bacon and hash browns with that?
Dumb ways to die is probably the best PSA I have seen, not only is it catchy and cute but its funny as all hell
wait, IT WAS A PSA?!??! oof.
wait, dumb ways to die was a psa?
always has been.
*BOOM*
@@grkbYes. That happens to be a Train safety PSA from Metro Trains Melbourne. I saw this while watching one of Zach R's videos on PSAs.
Apparently, 4 out of 5 abusive parents have substandard dental care.
Homer Simpson is the 5th one. After all, Lisa needs braces.
@@ToxPhy Dental plan!
Took an L earlier today, so the "words hurt" psa hit harder than I thought it would (I've seen this episode a bunch of times before). Seeing Ben respond to them angrily was quite cathartic and brought a smile to my face. Too bad I gotta go back to the real world. Thanks tho, Ben.
"Dammit, Rita, I'm trying to hibernate!" Thanks for that laugh, I needed it.
Of the PSAs I've seen, as far as the scarier ones, there's one that sticks out in my mind; an anti-drug one from roughly the early-to-mid '90s, that for years I thought was an ad for flood insurance.
In it, there's a girl trapped in her room, which is flooded to the ceiling, as she struggled to get air. Thanks in part to a poorly-timed commercial break during an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures one morning (The one with Baby Plucky and the toilet, for the curious), with that PSA being the very first thing shown, I had a fear of overflowing toilets for about a month. I can look back on this some 20+ years later and laugh, at least; got to love how sometimes things align in such a way as to unintentionally create some good old-fashioned nightmare fuel.
Is this the one you're referring to? If so, I remember it well: ua-cam.com/video/C01RT3T2R24/v-deo.html
Ah yes, the anti-inhalant abuse PSA..."When you think you're sniffing, your brain thinks you're drowning!" They also should have done a better job specifically explaining what the spot was referring to, since judging by the comments on YT uploads, too many kids who saw it back in the day apparently thought "sniffing" meant "sniffling", and that repeatedly blowing their nose could kill them!
I love the singing pills! I saw them many times during my childhood. Little known fact: the chrous was co-opted by Busta Rhymes for the song "Dangerous."
The PSA with the smoking Mime is going to haunt my nightmares now 0.o
OH MY GOD. I was wondering where that Black Face Bugs Bunny skit came from and it makes it all the more ironic that it seems to come from such a patriotic short! XD (Even funnier when you see the Sonic redraws of that face)
I think it's specifically supposed to be a parody of Al Jolson, who performed in blackface.
The best PSA I've seen was an Ad Council ad "Meth cleaning woman"; I don't know the actual name. "Look at me, busy as a bee; where did I get all this energy? Oh, meth. Oooh, meth!"
***** I can't sleep and I can't eat but I got the cleanest house on the street ooh meth oooh meth, get these hairs all out of my face, get these bugs all out of my place one more hit no time to waste oooh meth ooh meth.
Isn't that one of the ads from the Montana Meth Project? I believe so. Anyway, that was one of the best PSAs I've ever seen, and probably one of the more accurate anti-drug PSAs too.
The ads from Partnership for a Drug-Free America
one of the catchiest PSAs out there!
@@ladyi7609Actually, this anti-meth PSA was from the 90s. Years before the Montana Meth Project made their own scary PSAs.
In the "Words hurt" PSA, at the end, It says "Chicago, IL", Yet half of the people who say that stuff have New York accents.
Words hurt in Chicago? How 'bout bullets? about a dozen get snuffed each weekend there.
It was probably used in different cities.
@@JL-sm6cg I know I saw it on a Seattle, WA area station, so it definitely wasn't exclusive to Chicago.
that last parent abuse PSA, used to give me anxiety attacks as a kid... I'm not joking.
It makes me just want to slap them all, though, yeah, I'm 15, so....Yeah, I imagine if I were younger it would do the same.
***** Agreed! It still is terrible to think that people abuse their kids.
Just do what Ben did come up with retorts.
I actually heard those insults on a regular basis from age 7-14. So it brought back a lot of horrible memories.
So sorry...as I said before, I can't even imagine what it's like to go through something so horrible!
Having worked at two TV stations, the FCC asked for our daily traffic logs, and we had to "volunteer" two minutes an hour for PSAs. Usually I just aired old Partnership PSAs.
The PSA's in the UK make the American ones look like a tea party. Not long ago I watched some really graphic and disturbing ones, including a few that were a little unusual, like a little girl suffering severe burns from picking up a burned-out sparkler, a couple using an old, worn-out electric blanket that caught on fire and killed them, and a not very realistic but gruesome PSA about how evil it is to wear animal fur. The fur coats burst into blood and gore with maggots to represent the carcasses of the animals, and the whole PSA is ominous and creepy with "boom-boom-boom" music and loud buzzing of flies and weird blurry images.
loneshewolf74 Ha, thats nothing, Check out "Rabies means death".But dont do it if youre alone, or if its nightime. and set it to the lowest volume possible
loneshewolf74 Yeah, the first one was even banned for a long time. If not for the Lost Media Wiki, the fireworks short would've been lost forever.
+William Glover I never thought that the one PSA that would horrify me most of all was the one where UNICEF actually bombed the Smurfs' village. I've really got to stay off TV Tropes Nightmare Fuel page at night. I had to watch the "Dumb Ways To Die" PSA and all its many parodies to get over that, lol.
Simaginary Friend Can't forget the 'Don't take a chance with electricity' and all other stay away from substations and pylons PIFS
Why the fuck are PSAs so scary?
"He picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue"
I guess you could say -
He picked the wrong weeks to quit drinking, quit smoking and quit taking amphetamines! :P
I heard that line here before I heard it in airplane. Made the joke 10x funnier that I got it.
Awesome that you showed the Don't You Put It In Your Mouth PSA from Canada. I saw that all the time as a kid.
I remember an anti-meth PSA from the 90's that had someone drinking car battery acid from a straw. And being the sheltered child I was, it left me more confused than anything.
And, of course, the worst of all. This is just pure evil.
Apaches - Horrific UK Public Information Film - Part
+midnightmosesuk Electricity : Football
midnightmosesuk watch Larry bundy's video on it and you'll know how disturbing this movie is it's the freakin requiem for a dream of the 70s ua-cam.com/video/y_n4k4Do3D8/v-deo.html
Those PIFs (Public Information Films, as they were called in the UK) were far scarier than their American counterparts...the Brits really pulled no punches in getting their point across! Other notorious examples include "Robbie", "Lonely Water", "Killing Time", "Never Go with Strangers" (and its later semi-remake, "Say No to Strangers"), "The Finish Line", "Powerful Stuff" and the most recent of the batch, "Cow" (about a teenage girl who causes a fatal car accident by texting and driving).
Apaches is the PSA cousin of the movie Threads
How do you disguide a link under words? I have never seen this.
They may have removed that option because that comment was made 6 years ago
"Teeeeeaaaaach your children wellllll, you can't say helllllll, on this com-mercial!"
There is this modern Australian PSA where these teenagers skip school go to this beach and end up stepping on land mines
I've seen it... and trust me, it's one of those things that once you've seen it, you CAN'T unsee it... UGH
Windows4279 Lesson learned:
Don't skip school, or die by landmines in a beach.
I just realised something about that Joanna Cassidy PSA. There seems to be an earlier version of that ad, with a different take of Smokey removing the "mask". The whole design of Smokey is different (and a lot creepier), but the thing is that the mask of Joanna's face looks HORRIBLY disfigured when he removes it. I wonder if they got complaints about that image, and took extra care to make it look less scary on that second version.
If you're curious, here's the earlier version: ua-cam.com/video/tXcrbpMNvTs/v-deo.html
+Fernie Canto I remember that one... worse still was it was shown in the early morning hours and I was quite young. Up early watching TV in the dark before having to get ready for school. 70's PSAs were often disturbing.
+Fernie Canto I never saw the earlier one, but the later one. Just as well that was some prime nightmare fuel.
Yikes. I just saw it...
Those TEETH. Jeepers. O_o
Fuck dude, I was not expecting that. That split second with the crumpled mask on screen... eugh.
Yeah, the one shown here in the OA episode doesn't have Joanna Cassidy's Smile being pulled off of Smokey bear.
You sir just earned some awesome points for saying Smokey "the" Bear
YES! I was halfway thru the video and was about to ask where's the "VD is for Everybody" ad? That thing is so insane! LOL Another great vid Sir! THANKS!
How ironic is it that, after years of doing all those PSAs on safely escaping a burning house, Dick Van Dyke's home actually burned down sometime in the mid-90s?
As long as he was able to follow his own advice and get out safely, what's the problem?
You want hypocrisy? Many of those anti-smoking ads had people who smoked like industrial chimneys doing them.
@@JL-sm6cg Easy there...wasn't calling DVD a hypocrite at all, nor did I have a problem with him serving as the NFPA's celeb spokesman. Was merely pointing out the irony of his doing all those "Learn Not to Burn" PSAs and then ending up in a situation where the advice he gave to kids all those years ultimately proved to be a (literal) lifesaver for him, as well.
I just imagined him tripping over an ottoman trying to get out of his burning house.
PSA's are rare now since now Saturday morning is all E/I programming.
Nicholas M Daskievige yup. KGNG still airs PSAs, like this gored up high school girl who takes a cell out of her guts
Grumpy Bear Plays Yeah I've those PSA's there is the one where this person takes he tooth out with pliers
I have to say, having heard my ex-gf from years back being, at young age (from 15 to 26 years during out two relationships), called a whore for liking to have sex (how horrible) by her OWN MOTHER, I actually appreciated a LOT those ads about how verbal abuse is sometimes at least as bad as physical one... poor girl.
I can remember "This is your brain on drugs" as well "This is serious, we can make you dilirous" commercials.
I can even remember further back with Smokey the Bear: Where Joanna Cassidy was Smokey in disguise. Also, the other one where Smokey said, "Only you!" I was less than 10 years old at the time. I can even remember when riding in a car and seeing a sign of Smokey with a caption that read, "Repeat after me: 'Only you'". Now it's getting to sound like a song by The Platters. :-D Later, I would hear Smokey speaking in a higher voice in a later commercial and say a more complete sentence: "Only you can prevent forest fires." Oh yes, and there's a more recent commercial (I guess in the 1990's) where Smokey would speak in that low voice once again as a rapper. Then he stopped the rapping and said, "Let me put it to you straight: Only you can prevent forest fires."
Them dang immature-hood memories are not forgottenable!
The rage in the last PSA was priceless.
Ya forgot the Operation Lifesaver rail safety shorts... pretty graphic
maybe you should do a part 2 of PSAs or an episode on Operation lifesaver
growing up in canada, i got to see both american and canadian television (we recieved all the major networks, like cbs, abc, fox, nbc.etc), so it's a real nostalgic treat when you cover both american and canadian psas in this one.
That 'VD' one at the end reminds me of all those herpes medication commercials that show happy people dancing and vacationing and boating down rivers and having fun and making it look like herpes is the greatest thing in the world...
Reminds me of that cancer association PSA where there's an animation of birds singing in trees and a guy sleeping by the tree, and a Narrator (who's gene wilder, by the way), says "Do you know why we talk to you like this? Because when we talk like adults, you don't listen..."
at 7:15: I'm glad Torgo's daughter got work as a PSA actress. He must be so proud.
Can you do an episode about British PSA's? They had a whole bunch in the '70s & '80s that were far darker than what was being done in the U.S. at the time (e.g. The Finishing Line, Apache, Building Site Bites, etc.)
Well, of the UK PIF's (as they're called there) is Dark and Lonely water...now that would had scared even ME as a kid.
Dark and Lonely Water may have Death himself, but it doesn't have Gilbert Godfrey as a fire alarm crossed with the anti-smoking mime.
There's a fucking terrifying one about banning fox hunting, with the most "lovely" shots of gored fox carcasses and a chase scene where you play as a fox being hunted by hounds. I'm 25 and it's FUCKING NIGHTMARISH.
Don't get me started on the other anti-cruelty to animals PIFs over in Britain.
I think at one point I saw that when I was a kid. I am not 15 and it's still creepy.
xKaitoACUTEx - DarkerShade Which one?
"Vinnie 'VD' Vici". I am going to both groan and applaud at that pun at the same time :)
Guys, Most of these PSA's end up like parodies when for most of your life you've seen PSA's by the TAC, Quit Hotline & WorkSafe here in Australia!
WARNING: Most of our PSA's are a bit gruesome! So don't watch them if you get freaked out easily!
Yeah, I’ve watched all of those ads, Absolutely Brutal. Especially the TAC and WorkSafe Ads, like the one where a girl puts her hand in a Bread slicer and it slices her fingers off. Heck, on my recent reaction video, I actually have the sound effect slowed down on my Halloween themed intro.
Nonetheless, I do enjoy quite a lot of Australian PSAs. Also a big Footy fanatic as well, Carn the Swans.
Not that gruesome at all, but the "Mate" one is pretty good.
My Mom loved the crying Native American ad. She’s Native American on her Dad’s side and she always liked to think she was related to him.
If she's actually Native American, then they're not related, as "Iron Eyes Cody" is Sicilian. ("Sasha Littlefeather" was also a fraud.)
i honestly watch my home page eagerly in anticipation for another one of these
keep it up Ben
Oh god the "don't you put it in your mouth" psa. I heard that one so much growing up I knew it off by heart. X{
I'm a Canadian and the don't put it in you mouth psa did air. In the early 2000s
i remember seeing it as far back as '94, the really good one was astar the robot, he can put his arm back on, we can't... play safe
OMG, *****! Best PSA ever!!
The man was joking. “Keep in mind Ed is a compulsive liar”
Great... now after I just got the "don't you put it in your mouth" song out of my head after watching Nostalgia Critic's commercial specials, it pops right back in! Thanks, Oddity Archive!
14:58 Oh God I remember this. This was the newer version, they had to change it to this because in the older one, the mask has vampire teeth and soulless eyes.
Anybody remember that anti-drug PSA where you see a close-up of a girl's face slowly morphing into a zombie-like face with a voice singing an eerie rendition of Happy Birthday in the background?
Indeed, 'twas some creepy shit. Ended with being covered up didn't she?
Terry Allen Yes, that too. She got covered up with a sheet (BTW, that was a metaphor for death, since it's like the sheet that is put over a coffin).
Yeah, at the end, its hard to tell if the VO person said does or dies. Dies made more sense though.
Yes it just made me wanna do drugs out of spite. I didn't mostly cause I'm too scared to even find a drug dealer I mean they can fuck you up.
I got so excited to see the thumbnail, and the VD song for stuck in my head right away.
Crying in the night by parents too soon was like watching jason sedakis on what up with that :-)
One of my favorite OA episodes. Thanks Ben and Ed!
The "VD Is for Everybody" jingle was, I believe, sung by Maureen McGovern, who sang the theme songs to The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and the Donna Pescow sitcom Angie.
Shit, I wish MY nose was big enough to snort an entire airplane!
Enjoyed this. You should look at some more British P.A films. They used fear to drive their message home. Films like "Stranger Danger" and "The Spirit of Dark Water" left mental scars on some kids. They were made to be as terrifying as possible to young children and are even unnerving to adults. I seem to remember that one director of Therese films actually went on to direct horror films.
I personally think that the Spirit of dark water one was kind of funny.
I was busy cleaning house and wasn’t looking at the screen when the smoking mime one started, so I was innocently enjoying the cheesy ‘70s music, not knowing what was really going on. And then I looked at the screen *just in time* for him to start that heartbeat thing. I’ll never sleep again.
Love the Yugo joke!
When I think about it, Ben who directed most of the 70's and 80's PSA's. They were maybe some famous directors in that bunch ?
Although while you were responding to the dead beat idiot parent abuse PSA, it seemed quite cathartic to some people. Who the hell makes these kinds of ads, they're so damn goofy, even on a psycho-pop point of view ?
-ML
You made the video before I coulkd reccomend it! Thanks!
That Smokey Bear/Joanna Cassidy PSA was actually a censored version. The original version is actually kind of unsettling.
For those who'd rather not look it up, here's what's different. In the original, rather than the eyes-closed Cassidy mask used in the censored cut, a mask of a slack-jaw and eyes-opened Cassidy is used instead. It's pulled over his head rather than below, and Smokey's face is much more dead-eyed. His voice is deeper, and arguably less friendly as well.
You can watch the original here: ua-cam.com/video/xPY9kEROGTQ/v-deo.html Sweet dreams!
I love the creepy intro music...
I remember when I first saw the Joanna Cassidy Smokey PSA. Made me jump, lol. My dad saw it one afternoon. I could hear him, "Well, hello there!" then "Jesus Christ!" then laughing.
I saw part of the verbal abuse PSA on this weird "great things of the 80s compilation"
please make more videos, i really liked the protect and survive stuff you made, if you can get into that subject more that would be really nice, keep up the great work, truly yours, fan.
Somewhere around here, I have a couple of movies on VHS that have the PSA with the girl on the train tracks mixed into the previews. One is the 1990 IVE print of "Lobster Man from Mars", and I can't remember for the life of me what the other one was (and that's going to bug me now...).
I have distinct memories of the Pharmacy Quartet (like a barbershop quartet, but with medicine) that I actually drew an illustrated transcription of the silly commercial.
You sir are speaking my language. I work with PSAs on my UA-cam channel. I love your work
I really like your channel! Thanks
Best episode ever! I couldn't stop laughing!
the PSAs I see today are just people talking about how smoking ruined their lives and it just makes me feel sad. imagine watching something like puppy rescue only to see a woman talking with a robotic sound piece telling you how her life is ruined by smoking at the commercial break
Oh god! I thought my dad was making up that V. D. P.S.A.!
I certainly remember the stressed mom ad, the everybody smokes ad, the fire in the eyes Smokey the Bear ad, and most of all the pathetic, ad-nauseating, Partnership for a Freedom-Free (oops, Drug-Free) America ads.
4:57 ah, the origination of the member berries.
I remember when I was in high school back in the 70s, and my mom would drag me out of bed to get ready for school, while the little black and white TV in her bedroom was showing "The Today Show". That "VD Is for Everybody" PSA would always play at least once. I find it highly amusing that it has become so popular on the internet. My one comment about that PSA is: it was the 70s--you had to be there.
"We can't go on forever" Babe, you can't go on singing like that forever, can you? Oh god, you're going to continue.
There was anti-drug PSA in the late 60s-early 70s Rod Serling did for the National Institute of Mental Health. There were visual and sound effects. The audio was used for the radio version, and it was creepy as hell. I haven't found it anywhere.
the lady who said "You can't be my kid" has a crooked tooth.
So I'm 6 years late, but Jesus, that reaction to the verbal abuse one. Damn
indeed. i was eating and reading at the time, and then THAT happened. and my first thought was "jesus FUCK, ben!"
What's the muzak in the "Please Stand By" bit?
So the Johnny Smoke PSA was Narrated by James Earl Jones
18:22 -- Thom Yorke must've been inspired by this PSA when he did the Lotus Flower music video...
The more you know the less you understand - oddity archive
20:11 And you thought there were Nostalgiatards back then, YEEEEEEESH!!!
Out of all those, I only remember the girl at the train tracks PSA
21:52-22:30 Mind if I use that tirade against my mom and stepfather?
Was that Ron Perlman on the second "Time Out" PSA?
And glad I was able to contribute the Social Security and United Way (girl in prison) spots for this episode!
I lost it when you got pissed off at the PSA.
Revisiting this episode and man, Ben's reaction to the abuse PSA was a little too real and hit a little too hard. I came from a shitty family and have been there. lol
Okay, 16:46 makes me want to burn down a forest. lol
I have been torturing my family with this song for years. Most people don't remember that psa, I won't let them forget
The "under your nose" coke PSA narrator sounds like he's stoned, not very effective against drug prevention.
Hey, buddy! Let's take a little walk!
(groans in agony after seeing this for the billionth freaking time)
i need the music source for that one "cryin' in the night" PSA.
it's just so fucking 80's, i love it
I expected that one elf to start selling Fig Newtons and Easy Off to us.
Smokey the Bear looks like Freddy Fazbear
DON'T BRIng...Aaaah what's the use.
Well I'm not scared of clowns so all I could really focus on in the Social Security ad was 1 the ASL interpreter and 2 the fact that my generation has been screwed out of it.
Thanks a lot Reganomics.
'He may see bad guys, but not in the role of heroes. He'll learn that crime doesn't pay." Just like real life!
Oh, wait...
8:33 - Just realised that the background music is "Alternative 3", from Brian Eno's Music for Films.
20:41 to 22:31 = BEST WATCHING ON UA-cam EVER!!! YOU GO, BOY!
Oh, the days when kids wandered around out in the woods and the parents didn't care
12:41 I'm not a vampire but I feel like one
"Lurch?" HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
*The More You Know* 🌟
Try this one.
The Spirit Of Dark And Lonely Water (Public Information Film 1973)