[S] Unidentified "Qué Sera Sera" advert (incl. recreation)
Jun 13, 2021 18:23:36 GMT
blutsauger likes this
Post by Automaton on Jun 13, 2021 18:23:36 GMT
Hello, I have another mysterious commercial I learned about on Reddit. The OP has been trying to find this for years to no avail. Here's what they remember:
Other people do claim to remember this, including someone who thinks it most likely aired between 2003 and 2006, as well as someone else who remembers something similar playing before a film at the cinema in July 2007. Generally these are still pretty vague recollections (as well as taking into account the usual possibility that people are misremembering) and nobody actually knows what it was for.
The "rapid ageing" thing has been done many times before in the world of PSAs, but none of the well-known ones are what OP remembers (nor did they air in the UK during the 2000s). For the purposes of elimination, here are some examples:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaVTAu0TNcE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eedXRciUkAM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrk_H01XPSo
It's also confirmed not to be the Scottish drugs PIF in which the girl has a bad trip on a beach (see 2:33 in this advert break).
One of the better matches is a 2004 PIF from the Metropolitan Police, featuring a series of photographs of a drug addict named Roseanne Holland. Holland's face was used in several PSAs all over the world, and featured in this UK campaign due to rules against showing the identities of British addicts. Once again this isn't what OP remembers, but the theme of drug dealing makes more sense than smoking when you consider that OP remembers jail bars at the end. According to PIF/PSA YouTuber HelloImAPizza, there exists another version of this ad with a music box playing in the background, but I've not been able to find that one.
Which leads me on to the next predicament: nobody else in the PIF community seems to recognise this either. Of course, there's also the possibility that it wasn't a PIF after all. Here are some potential theories:
Finally, to help with this search, I put together a recreation based on the available descriptions. The version of "Qué Sera Sera" is a cover by Pink Martini, which the OP considers to be more of a tonal match than the original song.
The advertisment starts off with a home video of a young girl running around in a field of daisies and maybe blowing on a dandelion. Her mother might also be sitting on the grass with the girl. The footage is quite old and potentially in black and white. It is similar to the 'Daisy' advert from 1964 but not it. Over the top the song 'Whatever will be will be' by Doris Day is playing. There is then a picture of the little girl which slowly morphs into a woman as she grows up. The picture of a woman then morphs into an ill looking, bruised woman whose facial features have been damaged from drugs. A clanging sound can be heard as jail bars then appear over the image and the song fades out. The advert appeared approximately between 2003 and 2010 in England.
Other people do claim to remember this, including someone who thinks it most likely aired between 2003 and 2006, as well as someone else who remembers something similar playing before a film at the cinema in July 2007. Generally these are still pretty vague recollections (as well as taking into account the usual possibility that people are misremembering) and nobody actually knows what it was for.
The "rapid ageing" thing has been done many times before in the world of PSAs, but none of the well-known ones are what OP remembers (nor did they air in the UK during the 2000s). For the purposes of elimination, here are some examples:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaVTAu0TNcE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eedXRciUkAM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrk_H01XPSo
It's also confirmed not to be the Scottish drugs PIF in which the girl has a bad trip on a beach (see 2:33 in this advert break).
One of the better matches is a 2004 PIF from the Metropolitan Police, featuring a series of photographs of a drug addict named Roseanne Holland. Holland's face was used in several PSAs all over the world, and featured in this UK campaign due to rules against showing the identities of British addicts. Once again this isn't what OP remembers, but the theme of drug dealing makes more sense than smoking when you consider that OP remembers jail bars at the end. According to PIF/PSA YouTuber HelloImAPizza, there exists another version of this ad with a music box playing in the background, but I've not been able to find that one.
Which leads me on to the next predicament: nobody else in the PIF community seems to recognise this either. Of course, there's also the possibility that it wasn't a PIF after all. Here are some potential theories:
- It was a charity advert. These are sometimes counted as PIFs/PSAs by archivists and fans, but are often overlooked. Somebody suggested it was a child abuse PIF from the NSPCC, but their campaigns from the time are regarded very highly.
- It was a soap opera promo. This sounds quite out-there, but bear with me. British soaps can get pretty cryptic and artsy with their trailers during the build-up to a major storyline.
- It was the trailer for a TV special. This is the theory that I'm personally leaning towards... reading OP's details again made me think of the disturbing trailers for Channel 4's Dispatches, a long-running investigative journalism series which deals with sensitive topics in one-off documentary specials. Note: That second trailer I linked does end with jail bars appearing, but it's also confirmed to not be what OP is looking for.
Finally, to help with this search, I put together a recreation based on the available descriptions. The version of "Qué Sera Sera" is a cover by Pink Martini, which the OP considers to be more of a tonal match than the original song.
