Hi! Before I begin I would like to say how awesome your site is even though I'm not into horror myself.
Maybe you can help me with this trauma.
It was the '90s and I was a little maybe nine or ten and I remember this one particular ad that used to scare me and I would dread it when it came on.
It's an Aussie ad from "smarter than smoking" And that was a talking cigarette with a rather sinister voice. One part of the ad he would say "All I want is your money… AND I'LL TAKE YOUR HEALTH!!!" He would laugh and say "I'm going to get you. We come in packs!" Then he laughs manically. Brrrr. I don't think I was the only one scared of that ad as it didn't last very long on the set.
UNK SEZ: Thanks Michelle! Hopefully one of our Aussie pals will remember this one too! As for myself, I just learned the hard way never to google "anti smoking ad"! What a horror show! The delusional commercial below is more my speed!
A few years back here in Washington state, we had some really disturbing anti-smoking spots called "Ashtray Mouth". They featured stop motion dolls putting filthy disgusting things in their mouths. The point being was that smoking was just as gross. They were pretty cool ads actually. Sorry I can't help here though.
My Google Fu is at black belt level today. This isn't the described ad, but I certainly believe it to be from the same series, given Michelle D's description. It certainly gives me the heebie jeebies:
DDD, You are the google king! How did you find that?
That is horrifying and awesome. I bet that's him!
Thanks Unk. I wish I had a better story than this, but in reality, after several different tries, it finally came down to "Australian PSA Smoking" then digging through the youtube results.
Here's an email from Michelle…
"Hi, this is Michelle. D again. Thank you so much for posting my post. That video that Dylan Donnie-Duke posted in the comment section wasn't the actual ad I was talking about. But it did have the same Talking cigarette as I do remember another ad made from the same company during that era (smarted than smoking). That Talking cigarette is pure evil, isn't it? "
I'm thinking what DDD found is a video college that uses shots from the original ad. I'm so glad we got to see the cigarette's face! I wouldn't be able to imagine it as being that horrifying!