A PSA or short film of an injured man, last seen on YouTube in 2018.
I saw the PSA/commercial in February/March 2018 on YouTube. My sister and I were watching scary ad compilations on YouTube starting with HelloImAPizza. We finished his compilations and started clicking on the side looking for others. There was a very unsettling psa/ad/commercial/pif of a man close up with long bars/needles/pins/screws going through his head speaking about something but neither of us can remember what was said exactly. His face/profile is close up and the lights are initially dim. It then zooms out to the doctor or hospital staff working and making a few comments on whatever his situation is. I’d estimate it was no less than 1 minute and no longer than 4 minutes.
-HelloImAPizza has disclosed to me that he has NO idea what this commercial is or where it’s from so he obviously does not have it in any of his compilations. -IT HAD NO RELATION TO THE STORY OF PHINEAS GAGE -It’s NOT the Guinea Pig psa and it’s NOT the Joey psa and it’s NOT the asbestos guy psa -My sister claims she remembers the man saying “it’s holding my brain together”. NOT definite or confirmed -We strongly believe it was a true story type of commercial. It’s 99% not fictional by using makeup or actors -Seven people have told me that they have seen it but cannot find it either. The one individual remembers seeing it on TV late 90s/early 2000s. Everyone else claims they saw it on YouTube in recent years.
Do you know what country this came out of or what message they may have been trying to express? Maybe try Partnership for a Drug Free America, Above the Influence, Freevibe or The Montana Meth Project if you're in the US.
Like said it's either some drug PSA or something about safety. If I would have to guess the pins or whatever are there to help keep his head together, if thats not repeating info. It seems like an allegory for mental health but him being in the hospital irks me that that's wrong. It doesn't sound like anything I've seen. Do you remember an accent at all?
that's part of the problem - no idea which country it came from. we had put on a random playlist of ads/psas and it was there. thinking it might have been removed by now but still surprised no one has seen it or reuploaded it considering how terrifying it was. it definitely wasn't from those popular ad councils mentioned. we can't remember for sure but it might have been in a video that ranked the level of scariness, so i don't think it was a single video but not completely sure.
that's part of the problem - no idea which country it came from. we had put on a random playlist of ads/psas and it was there. thinking it might have been removed by now but still surprised no one has seen it or reuploaded it considering how terrifying it was. it definitely wasn't from those popular ad councils mentioned. we can't remember for sure but it might have been in a video that ranked the level of scariness, so i don't think it was a single video but not completely sure.
Try Zach R on YouTube, Zach does a lot of videos about PSAs. He might have an idea.
Last Edit: Jun 28, 2023 23:30:35 GMT by lostdaisy77
Zach mostly just commentates on the content of other PSA archivists. I've been following OP's search for a while and they've brought it to the attention of so many people in the PSA/PIF community who've got no idea either. There's a chance it's something from a now-deleted channel like GabbyTheClown, but I don't remember her posting anything so rare that it'd stump the likes of HelloImAPizza and other countdown creators.
At this point it sounds like a case of misremembering and conflating various things together. With how many other PSAs it's similar to, it's very easy for other people to think they've seen it when really it was just something else with one or more of the same elements.
Still searching. It's definitely nothing like any of the other PSAs out there. I don't know how else to describe it but it seems most people take part of the description and automatically assume it's something else. Literally thousands of videos have been watched or previewed but nothing came close to what was originally seen. It had to be either a drug, alcohol, or driving related video. Definitely was not any abuse or other category. We're not sure exactly what was sticking out of his head but there were multiples of them, like a lot. Pins/Screws/Rods/Wires/Bolts/Nails/Head Brace/etc. = words that could be used for the head pieces. At this point it seems that it may no longer even be online considering all the videos and playlists we've been viewing, but it was originally in a playlist that was on autoplay, so that's why we're not too sure of the exact details. I think it was in one of those countdown/ranking/rating compilation videos.