Oh my dearest Kindertrauma, I have JUST discovered you, and I'm in love! I'm hoping you can help me figure out who was behind the biggest trauma of my young life. It was, of course, a PSA, and it sent me and my brother running out of the room in tears back in the '70s. I'm pretty sure it was made by the Latter Day Saints. It was about hate, and it featured a little red cartoon guy with smoke coming out of his ears and, as I recall, wild swirly eyes. He started far off in the distance and stomped toward the screen as a creepy song about hate played. The last line of the song, as I recall, was, "Hate…the one it hurts the most…is YOU!" And when it said, "you," the little guy EXPLODED!
I've searched for this thing in vain for years. The closest reference I've found is HERE.
Oh, and I did a gallery installation about THE WALTONS' episode "The Changeling" at GalleryThe here in NYC. I slept in the gallery window wearing a red wig, surrounded by Raggedy Ann dolls, as a TV played the scene.
I hope someone else remembers this PSA!
UNK SEZ: Thanks Stacy! I don't remember your commercial but I've always been haunted by another one that I'm pretty sure was from the Latter Day Saint's too. In it, a little girl is shown crying, looking out of a rain soaked window and then her mom comes up behind her and the girl says, "Mom, why am I so dumb?" and that's it. They used to show it all the time and I know it existed because it inspired a popular catchphrase in my home. I'm not a fan of religion myself but I must give credit where it's due and say that the Amish make great pickles and the Mormons make great TV commercials. I could watch LDS spots all day! They run the gamut from noose inspiring to nitrous oxide sweet and every so often they're narrated by TOM BOSLEY! I looked for both of our PSAs in the YouTube pile up below and came up empty handed but maybe if we keep our fingers crossed and pray to the Internet, both of our ads will reemerge soon!
ALSO: Thank you Stacy for alerting the Kindertrauma offices to both HEDDA GET BEDDA and the board game SEANCE! Kids, you can buy Stacy's book LOUD IN THE HOUSE OF MYSELF over HERE!
Here here. “Why am I so dumb†was a gut punch. Another that left me feeling miserable, and I believe also a Latter Day saint creation, was one where a bunch of kids run outside to play; all except the one slightly overweight, and maybe slightly slow child (not quite sure what his affliction was). The mother of said child, meaning to be kind, tells the sad kid, “Don’t worry…look! I baked you a nice brownie!â€, and gives this kid a football sized brownie on a plate, that he sadly looks down it, while staring out the window at the happy kids. Remember that one?
Bigwig,
I don't remember that one but now I really want to see it. It's strange that so many of these spots include people staring out of windows. The first spot in the second video collection I posted of the "I'm alone lady" is another example. I love the part when her own cat rejects her.
Somebody needs to make a movie inspired by these ads and just have it be an assortment of vignettes about people being rejected by the world and parents incessantly shredding their children's self esteem with maybe a musical number about the perils of lying thrown in at the end. I think It would be creepier than any horror movie.
I'm so glad you remember "Mom, why am I so dumb?"!!!
Wow! That was a fun 17 minutes. There was definitely some genius ad agency behind that campaign. Most of those spots are brilliant…and they don't mention religion at all.
Thank you, Unk! I definitely remember the one you're talking about as well. Someday I'll find mine — I won't rest until I do!
I remember the PSA Stacy describes very well because it's one of my own primary kindertraumas. I'm very curious to see it again but I think I would also be ok with never seeing it again, because it seriously f#ck&d me up.
Man, the LDS spots bug the crap out of me – and I believe in God! Did you notice they no longer say they're from LDS? Now they say "Foundation For A Better Life" on even ones that USED to say LDS on them. (Like that one with the boy who isn't any good at sports but supposedly is good at singing.) The worse being the one where the woman is obviously considering euthanizing her father. The whole "You can let go now daddy" crap. Yeah, real great message.
Wow, those clips really had me flashing back. Maybe I'm turning into an old softie, but that blonde kid crying over his cereal bowl is HEARTBREAKING!
There's another one I remember about a kid confessing that his baseball broke a guys window, but it was all done in song, like a musical:
"Mr. Robinson, Mr. Robinson,
What a horrible mess!
I broke your window, with my ball…
And I've come to confess."
Found it BB. hey that's Alfonso Ribeiro!
Deaf Ears, what do you remember about it??
Also, Seance had a sequel called Voice of the Mummy that I think I failed to mention. I have a semi-working copy of this one! http://www.voiceofthemummygame.com/
I wish they would bring back both "Seance" & "Voice of the Mummy" . it would be so easy to upgrade the voice technology now and I want to play both.
I had the "Which Witch?" game but I could have sworn it was a Scooby doo version…maybe it just reminded me of SD as a kid…
http://bit.ly/9BCMZK
@stacy – I pretty much remember it the way you do, except my impression was he was rocking from side to side on his feet, not coming from the distance. I also remember that he was an older guy with white hair – his face did get red though. My brother and I have been trying to find it for years or any background on it – maybe when I have a few spare hours I'll see if the Museum of Television and Radio has it.
Wow, Deaf Ears, I'm so glad to know I'm not alone on this one! We must find it!!
I know I'm late to the party, but the Mom Why Am I So Dumb commercial is here:
Kolleen You found it!!! Thank you so much, I've been hunting for that forever! Wow, it's funny how different it is than I remembered. I thought it was much more morose and depressing and I distictly remembered rain outside the window! Can't thank you enough!
The PSA Stacy mentions is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBatcfdRDA0
It always sent me running in hysterics too! And like Stacy, I searched in vain for years for it. As I recall there were two versions and this is the shorter one. I hope she's still reading and that she sees this. Glad I could help.