[S] 90s animated smoking PSA yellow guy coughs his lungs out
Jul 6, 2023 21:01:55 GMT
likechance, axiefae, and 1 more like this
Post by Automaton on Jul 6, 2023 21:01:55 GMT
This anti-smoking PSA dates from the 90s through to the early 2000s and remains undiscovered, despite at least 6 posts on Reddit which describe the same thing. The ad appears to have aired somewhat locally within the USA, because 5 out of 6 sightings come from the Chicagoland and Indiana regions (the sixth poster did not give a location).
Description:
Additional info:
One person recalls that Yellow Guy played “incessantly” on non-cable stations like Fox or Kids' WB. He’s been seen in Illinois (namely Chicago and its suburbs) as well as Indiana (Remmington and Indianapolis specifically).
The same person vaguely remembers the yellow character on an anti-smoking booth at the Indiana State Fair.
u/DoubledOgre and u/VexusD both drew the character they remember seeing:
Links to the Reddit posts:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/tb78ew/tomtpsaanimated90s_some_sort_of_antidrug_or/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/657jl3/tomt_anti_smoking_commercial/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/hjfqrq/tomt_antismoking_commercial_from_late_90s_or/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/ilmy36/tomtgrotesque_animated_antismoking_ad2000s_thats/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/z5oa17/tomtadvertisement2000_an_old_advertisement_that_i/
www.reddit.com/r/LostCommercials/comments/14o4lfw/quit_smoking_cartoon_add/
But there's more... maybe.
"Smoking Stinks" and Samantha Skunk
I need to mention in advance that this extra stuff might be entirely unrelated to our Yellow Guy, but it's still pretty interesting and relates to a different Chicagoland smoking PSA that's also unavailable online.
One of the posts about Yellow Guy mentions "It's not safe, it's not smart, don't start" as the potential slogan, which I googled and found an exchange between two Tumblr users that described another PSA with a similar tagline, this time involving a purple skunk character.
Someone in the Lost Commercials Foundation server reached out to dreamiecl0ud, who confirmed that this "Samantha Skunk" ad was from Skokie, Illinois - a town just north of Chicago.
This also made us aware of the Smoking Stinks slogan, which wasn't mentioned in any of the Yellow Guy posts and might indeed have nothing to do with it, but it does seem to have been in active use by local Chicago health authorities since at least the mid-90s (according to this book on Chicago policing).
Samantha Skunk herself was the product of the University of New Hampshire, who rolled out the programme to Dover youth in 1993. She has her own website with a "Smoking Stinks" section, and seems to have been adopted nationwide; a YouTube search brings up Samantha-themed school plays from all across the country right up to the present day.
A 2001 document from the Illinois Department of Public Health mentions educational materials for "The Tale of Samantha the Magenta Skunk: Why Smoking Stinks", which suggests that the Illinois Samantha Skunk campaign and "Yellow Guy" could have been running concurrently.
Based on this, it's entirely possible that the user who mentioned "it's not smart, don't start" in relation to the Yellow Guy ad was simply mixing up the slogan with Samantha, since they were in Chicago at the time both PSAs were running.
It's probably more likely that the particular Samantha Skunk PSA described on Tumblr had an even narrower field of airing than simply "Chicagoland", with its specific focus on Skokie landmarks and attractions. The Skokie Health Department has been known to make their own PSAs:
This tweet seems to confirm that the Skokie Health Department used the full tagline at some point:
There's a couple of other tweets from Chicago residents making reference to the campaign, but these aren't quite so useful.
Whether "Yellow Guy" and "Samantha" are related or not, the fact the Samantha ad is also lost makes it difficult to mention one without addressing the other.
PSAs which are similar to "Smoking Stinks"
It's worth noting as well that the "Smoking Stinks" slogan was in wider use across the United States since before the 1990s, most notably by the American Cancer Society but some local authorities too. Here's a few similar campaigns/slogans we've looked into:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnXHiW6DAQQ&ab_channel=TapeHole - "Smoking Stinks" from the Michigan Department of Public Health (1990)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2j1mH1xO0k - "Too Smart to Start" from the American Cancer Society (1990-something). Features a skunk symbol, but for some bizarre reason it's the Lockheed Martin "Skunk Works" logo lol
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQVNGFYSYts - "Smoking Stinks" from the ACS again (1978)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5US7kr1uV4 - "Smoking Stanks" from Mississippi (2011 - too recent, but just goes to show how common this type of messaging is)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJa95gij9g - "Be Smart, Don't Start" from Oklahoma Blue Cross (2016)
In terms of PSAs which are similar to Yellow Guy, there's quite a few cartoony smoking ads from the 90s which targeted children and used a surreal, gaudy art style. Here's some examples:
This AIDS PSA with cartoon yellow people is also along similar lines:
The closest match so far is this trilogy of ads from the Youth Anti-Smoking Campaign circa 2002 (one of which is called "Love Stinks"), though they're still different enough from the commonalities between the Reddit descriptions to be most likely unrelated.
www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/28193/choked-up/youth-anti-smoking-campaign
www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/28195/painful-lesson/youth-anti-smoking-campaign
www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/28194/love-stinks/youth-anti-smoking-campaign
Description:
- The PSA takes place in a white space, where a scrawny, yellow-skinned cartoon man is rapping. He's been described alternately as looking like a breadstick, and having a pot belly. I'm gonna call him "Yellow Guy" from now on.
- He’s standing next to a dog, which one viewer recalls to be wearing a gas mask.
- At the end of the rap, the man literally coughs his lungs out (some posts mention other organs too). The dog jumps out of the way to avoid them.
- It’s likely the rap ended with lyrics along the lines of “puking, choking, and that’s the inside story on smoking.” The tagline “It's not safe, it's not smart, don't start” has also been mentioned in relation to the PSA, but this has caused some confusion during previous search efforts and might be related to another PSA entirely (more on that later).
Additional info:
One person recalls that Yellow Guy played “incessantly” on non-cable stations like Fox or Kids' WB. He’s been seen in Illinois (namely Chicago and its suburbs) as well as Indiana (Remmington and Indianapolis specifically).
The same person vaguely remembers the yellow character on an anti-smoking booth at the Indiana State Fair.
u/DoubledOgre and u/VexusD both drew the character they remember seeing:
Links to the Reddit posts:
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/tb78ew/tomtpsaanimated90s_some_sort_of_antidrug_or/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/657jl3/tomt_anti_smoking_commercial/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/hjfqrq/tomt_antismoking_commercial_from_late_90s_or/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/ilmy36/tomtgrotesque_animated_antismoking_ad2000s_thats/
https://www.reddit.com/r/tipofmytongue/comments/z5oa17/tomtadvertisement2000_an_old_advertisement_that_i/
www.reddit.com/r/LostCommercials/comments/14o4lfw/quit_smoking_cartoon_add/
But there's more... maybe.
"Smoking Stinks" and Samantha Skunk
I need to mention in advance that this extra stuff might be entirely unrelated to our Yellow Guy, but it's still pretty interesting and relates to a different Chicagoland smoking PSA that's also unavailable online.
One of the posts about Yellow Guy mentions "It's not safe, it's not smart, don't start" as the potential slogan, which I googled and found an exchange between two Tumblr users that described another PSA with a similar tagline, this time involving a purple skunk character.
broderbund
There’s a commercial in my hometown about these two kids saying “What’s that smell? Don’t look at me it’s coming from him!” and no one else outside our town has ever seen this commercial about this purple skunk. No one will ever fucking see this abomination of a commercial where this one kid at the end isn’t even saying “Smoking stinks! It’s not smart! Don’t start!” and they just put a voiceover on him
dreamiecl0ud
This was from where I grew up, she was magenta and turned a “sickly smelly smarmy shade of green” when she smoked a cigarette. I have been trying to find the commercial FOREVER. I wish I could find it, it’s not even on YouTube.
There’s a commercial in my hometown about these two kids saying “What’s that smell? Don’t look at me it’s coming from him!” and no one else outside our town has ever seen this commercial about this purple skunk. No one will ever fucking see this abomination of a commercial where this one kid at the end isn’t even saying “Smoking stinks! It’s not smart! Don’t start!” and they just put a voiceover on him
dreamiecl0ud
This was from where I grew up, she was magenta and turned a “sickly smelly smarmy shade of green” when she smoked a cigarette. I have been trying to find the commercial FOREVER. I wish I could find it, it’s not even on YouTube.
This also made us aware of the Smoking Stinks slogan, which wasn't mentioned in any of the Yellow Guy posts and might indeed have nothing to do with it, but it does seem to have been in active use by local Chicago health authorities since at least the mid-90s (according to this book on Chicago policing).
Samantha Skunk herself was the product of the University of New Hampshire, who rolled out the programme to Dover youth in 1993. She has her own website with a "Smoking Stinks" section, and seems to have been adopted nationwide; a YouTube search brings up Samantha-themed school plays from all across the country right up to the present day.
A 2001 document from the Illinois Department of Public Health mentions educational materials for "The Tale of Samantha the Magenta Skunk: Why Smoking Stinks", which suggests that the Illinois Samantha Skunk campaign and "Yellow Guy" could have been running concurrently.
Based on this, it's entirely possible that the user who mentioned "it's not smart, don't start" in relation to the Yellow Guy ad was simply mixing up the slogan with Samantha, since they were in Chicago at the time both PSAs were running.
It's probably more likely that the particular Samantha Skunk PSA described on Tumblr had an even narrower field of airing than simply "Chicagoland", with its specific focus on Skokie landmarks and attractions. The Skokie Health Department has been known to make their own PSAs:
This tweet seems to confirm that the Skokie Health Department used the full tagline at some point:
There's a couple of other tweets from Chicago residents making reference to the campaign, but these aren't quite so useful.
Whether "Yellow Guy" and "Samantha" are related or not, the fact the Samantha ad is also lost makes it difficult to mention one without addressing the other.
PSAs which are similar to "Smoking Stinks"
It's worth noting as well that the "Smoking Stinks" slogan was in wider use across the United States since before the 1990s, most notably by the American Cancer Society but some local authorities too. Here's a few similar campaigns/slogans we've looked into:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnXHiW6DAQQ&ab_channel=TapeHole - "Smoking Stinks" from the Michigan Department of Public Health (1990)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2j1mH1xO0k - "Too Smart to Start" from the American Cancer Society (1990-something). Features a skunk symbol, but for some bizarre reason it's the Lockheed Martin "Skunk Works" logo lol
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQVNGFYSYts - "Smoking Stinks" from the ACS again (1978)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5US7kr1uV4 - "Smoking Stanks" from Mississippi (2011 - too recent, but just goes to show how common this type of messaging is)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMJa95gij9g - "Be Smart, Don't Start" from Oklahoma Blue Cross (2016)
In terms of PSAs which are similar to Yellow Guy, there's quite a few cartoony smoking ads from the 90s which targeted children and used a surreal, gaudy art style. Here's some examples:
This AIDS PSA with cartoon yellow people is also along similar lines:
The closest match so far is this trilogy of ads from the Youth Anti-Smoking Campaign circa 2002 (one of which is called "Love Stinks"), though they're still different enough from the commonalities between the Reddit descriptions to be most likely unrelated.
www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/28193/choked-up/youth-anti-smoking-campaign
www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/28195/painful-lesson/youth-anti-smoking-campaign
www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/28194/love-stinks/youth-anti-smoking-campaign
