I recently watched this video from a small YouTube channel called BrewBros, in which a group of friends describe an unidentified commercial which has become something of an inside joke within their circle. The video is 20 minutes long and contains a lot of goofing around, so I'll summarise the basic premise:
The ad begins with night vision footage of a dad drinking milk out of the fridge, swigging straight from the carton.
At some point it's revealed that the ad has been from the POV of a baby. The dad pours the milk into a glass instead, not wanting to teach his kid a bad habit.
It's unknown if the ad was for milk itself, or some kind of PSA about manners. It's also possible it was for some other product entirely.
The ad probably wasn't meant to be creepy, but the implication that this baby had been left alone in a dark kitchen is the main reason this person remembered it.
An exact timeframe isn't given in the video, but it's shown they've checked commercial breaks from the 2000s in general. Likely aired on a kids channel.
I think it's unlikely this ad is lost or even particularly obscure, but the video hasn't had all that much attention. Due to the overall tone of the video it's kinda hard in places to figure out which parts are a joke or not, but the general description of the ad sounds too mundane to be outright made up.
Here's a couple of ads with a similar premise that lack too many crucial details to be an exact match:
Honestly, I'd assumed the guy who made the video had done that already. There's screencaps of a few in the video but I don't really know how deep they went. They're very unclear about the year and exact location which is not particularly helpful either.
I think there's a good chance it's not actually an ad for milk and it's more about the message/metaphor, though it may not be a PSA either.
Solved with confirmation from the guys who made the video!
I stumbled upon this PBS Kids PSA whilst looking for something else and thought the premise was familiar. Can definitely see how the "recording" effect was misremembered as night vision.