So, there was this freaky commercial that never escapes from my mind. I assure it's a PSA for smoking cigarettes. Some might find the concept silly. But I was a pussy back then lol.
This played in the late 2000's. I think in 2007 or 2008. Unfortunately, I don't remember the channel it aired on. But this was in Washington State. I swore I even saw posters of it in front of mini markets.
Anyways, I recall the commercial taking place at a bar or a night club. The colors/lighting were dark. I believe there were a group of girls having fun. Not sure if all of them were smoking. But one of them was.
Suddenly suspenseful music plays and the camera pans to a raw chicken with a long neck while smoke comes out of it. The main girl stares at the chicken with a shocked expression and the meat even had a voice.
Kleenex-looking kids kissing with gross decay objects in their mouths. Yes, that existed and even aired on Cartoon Network...
Edit: I swore there might've been more than one PSA.
UPDATE: Thank you TheTidster! Apparently it's not a chicken, but a turkey. I mixed up the linked bar ad with the trashcan ad I recently found. Except none of those had a group of women. That must've been my faulty memory haha. Anyways, that is the correct PSA! Unfortunately, the poster ad seems to be lost media.
Last Edit: Jan 13, 2023 7:34:50 GMT by angiefoodcake
Looks like the 'Cold Turkey' ad-campaign was used by the Dept. of Health in Washington State to help drive people towards better anti-addiction coping mechanisms and specifically the '1800quitnow' hotline.
The first commercial I found related to the campaign that clued me in was this "Midnight Rambler". After a quick bit of digging though I was able what I think is the one you were looking for called 'Barfly' - a bar scene with a girl turning into a turkey after smoking a cig. I'm sure there is more info we could dig up regarding the production and airdates, but if this is it - would at least put us to learning more.
Watching a few of these PSA's from a comically-smug but gross looking turkey is honestly kind of amusing, but definitely would have freaked me out as a child if on during my cartoons!
P.S. Seems like these were put together by Washington Health Department, the same people who made the creepy doll psa you mentioned in your post!
Last Edit: Jan 13, 2023 3:55:43 GMT by TheTidster: formatting
Looks like the 'Cold Turkey' ad-campaign was used by the Dept. of Health in Washington State to help drive people towards better anti-addiction coping mechanisms and specifically the '1800quitnow' hotline.
The first commercial I found related to the campaign that clued me in was this "Midnight Rambler". After a quick bit of digging though I was able what I think is the one you were looking for called 'Barfly' - a bar scene with a girl turning into a turkey after smoking a cig. I'm sure there is more info we could dig up regarding the production and airdates, but if this is it - would at least put us to learning more.
Watching a few of these PSA's from a comically-smug but gross looking turkey is honestly kind of amusing, but definitely would have freaked me out as a child if on during my cartoons!
P.S. Seems like these were put together by Washington Health Department, the same people who made the creepy doll psa you mentioned in your post!
Wow thank you! That was the exact turkey. I might've also saw the sandwich one as well. Not sure why my description was so off. I must've mixed it up with a different commercial or my imagination made it more scary.
The "suspenseful music" I previously mentioned was used in this third ad! Found it by searching "smoking turkey ad."
Last Edit: Jan 13, 2023 5:26:31 GMT by angiefoodcake
Post by angiefoodcake on Jan 15, 2023 20:43:51 GMT
A few new discoveries! Not sure if I'm the only one that gives a damn about that bird lol.
I was curiously looking thru the scary PSA list on TVTropes and there was a mention of the afromentioned sandwich ad. According to the entry it said it aired in 2007.
Creative me was wondering if that quitline website ever got archived on the WayBackMachine? Especially in that year? So... I copied the link and chose a random month. And suddenly I found this static ad. I will be honest that kind of made me jump lol.
I now wonder if that was the poster I saw as a kid? It also makes me wonder if there were any visuals/mentions of the infamous Ashtray Mouth dolls on that website? I actually don't want to look (yet) since the smoking turkey is at least passable to look at...
Last Edit: Jan 15, 2023 20:56:17 GMT by angiefoodcake
On the left side of the page list there is a "TV ADVERTISEMENTS" section. Obviously, a list of commercials tied to the service. There were also transcripts to the commercials but sadly they weren't saved.
There are all three turkey ads listed on February 10th. (nothing in January) I don't recall seeing these ads in late winter. But then again I was a child at the time and my memory is foggy. They even have officials titles! "Midnight", "Cocktail", and "Dark Alley."
Another neat discovery I discovered is when I clicked on the link to the Midnight ad from the aforementioned TVTropes page. It lead me to a different copy of the ad. Uploaded by The Hall of Advertising. In the end the turkey doesn't says "quitter." It instead responds "goodnight" to the man!
That wraps things up! It'll be cool to see the production behind these kind of campaigns. I'm curious on the process behind on how they made the turkey puppet (I guess it's actual raw meat?) and inserted the smoke effect.
Last Edit: Jan 20, 2023 9:53:26 GMT by angiefoodcake