I’m SO glad I wasn’t the only person who believed the house hippo, or never understood the message of an ad because the visuals were weird. Even if they were effective, I tuned out commercials regardless.
As many seem not to know, half the time kids aren't listening to anything being said to them, and you gotta be REALLY direct about things so they get what seems to an adult as a basic concept.
That ad with the drug dealer puppet is weird cuz it showed a bunch of flashing images of famous people that died due to drugs, and one of them was a mugshot of Jim Morrison, which is weird cuz he didn’t get arrested for drug possession, he got arrested for punching a cop before a concert and calling him a pig onstage
I grew up with these as a kid (btw I'm from the same city Adam grew up in). Holy fuck, that TV one really fucked with me. At the end when the TV is all like "yo btw you can also go outside and play with your friends and shit" I was like "...why?" Probably my favourite growing up was the War Amps commercial. That robot looking at the camera and being like "I can put my arm back on, you can't" always scared me
I owe the Super Best Friends so much just for singing the Don't Put it in Your Month song in one of their vids and forcing it on all my American friends
I like the ads that just said something like "Don't do crack." It's like saying, "Hey kids, don't do trinomials." I have no idea what you're talking about, but okay.
This vid autoplayed while i was in the shower and all i could hear was nanalan and adam saying “this music sucks” then playing the music again and saying “thats gay propaganda”
This stuff is so lighthearted compared to what I remember. My state (Georgia) has/had an anti-meth campaign and I distinctly remember an ad where a guy was whoring out his girlfriend for meth. It was upsettingly graphic for something they wanted 13 year old health and wellness students to watch
I remember that one. It went right over my head. Just show middle-school-me the pictures of people with horrible facial and mouth sores. I still liked Lisa Frank. Forced prostitution didn’t comprende.
I know words have power but I didn't think that meant I could force-choke people by calling them nerds. Thanks, Canada! This will make my bullying 10x more potent!
The absolute whiplash I experienced as a kid watching these commercials to then cut back to SpongeBob or Fairly Odd Parents…imagine seeing an ad about how drug use is horrible to then hard cut to the Nanalan’ intro 🙃
these were all a great trip down memory lane l also loved how the house hippo didn't work at all for its purpose of you not believing everything you see on tv, tried finding one for so long after seeing this
I'm slightly disappointed that after Adam said "Not uncle Fred", it didn't immediately cut to a clip of Freaky Fred saying "Nauuuuuuuuughty". Edit: I remember the house hippo advert from when I was a child. I think they reedited it to refer to the UK because I don't remember it talking about the North American house hippo.
Those PSAs would have kids believe people will just be throwing drugs at them. I was never even offered a cigarette. The closest I got was an older friend offering to sneak me a drink at a club when I was 18.
I'm gonna have to watch this. made Canadian friends recently and they ALL know the "in your mouth" song and the house hippo the song even got a reference in Dawn of the Monsters, in the early levels where you smash through New Toronto.
Man, remember DARE? Police officers went to classrooms and educated kids on how to recognize the different types of drugs, what they do to you, how they're used, etc. By all accounts this backfired terribly and just made the kids want to drugs more lol.
This one time, the officer brought in these special googles that messed up your vision to simulate what it's like when you're drunk, and you had to try to walk along a straight line. Yanno, like if you were pulled over for drunk driving. Obviously it was meant to teach us how hard and dangerous it is to function when drunk, but being a bunch of fifth graders, we just thought it was fun. Everyone wanted a turn with the funny googles!
I'm only too old for a couple of these old PSAs, but the rest were just a part of watching tv in Canada. Mostly good nostalgia here... I feel that Canadian kids were fortunate that we had some creative people involved in the process so some of these left a lasting impression on our culture... "Don't you put it in your mouth..." will always elicit a response in a group of people similar to my age. I'm serious when I mean this shit is nearly part of our culture.
I’m not Canadian but I recognized all of the PSAs as a PSA geek who watches compilations of these as a hobby (believe me, Singapore’s got some fucked up ones!)
My plan to end adolescent drug use: Since teens are programmed to do anything the adults tell them not to do, instead of making anti-drug PSAs, we make pro-drug PSAs, but they’re still just as lame as the anti drug ones.
Probably because the animation isn't grainy and the movement is really smooth. The actual clip could be a remastered version of a 70s commercial, though.
As far as the whole "kids need to seriously be talked down to, otherwise they won't get it", I saw those ads about texting while driving where it showed the aftermath, like a brain injury or whatever, and then the text like "this is the text I was writing when I crashed" - and all I thought was, "those people are idiots." It didn't open my eyes and make me realise I had to be careful, I just thought people were dumb. Also, I remember the House Hippo ad, even though I never lived in Canada. Maybe they showed it in other places, too.
You guys remember the one where a kid is getting bullied by a shadow while eating his Eggos and it just starts off with the shadow yelling, “mOrNiN’ TiMmY”?
I remember seeing the “I’m a T-Rex” thing for the first time in a YTP and laughed my ass off Will never forget EDIT: holy crap I saw that “don’t put things in your mouth” in a YTP too I think those were my first exposure to Canadian PSAs lmao
An ad I got: “VAPING IS STEERING ME TOWARDS DESTRUCTION” Cool, adults still don’t know how to talk to teens and use silly hyperbolic language that seems condescending. There are definitely more teens vaping from this ad. I look forward to someone reviewing modern day ads in 20 years with the lens of nostalgia.
House Hippo is probably my favorite of these old PSAs, & it has a message that more people should take to heart today. My question was YMS taking the piss or was he being honest when he said it was dishonest?
Ok but dont put it in your mouth has a genuine good beat, rythm and is a decent earworm for kids and hell even for adult manchildren like me xD tis a genuine bop
These were my childhood. .-. I remember the TV and literally quote the boutique "why be you when, you ... can be me?" all the time. Also waking up to the "one potato" commercial in the middle of the night as the kid was unnerving. lol They are ridiculous but most of them are unforgettable.
tbf i also learned how to do the trex noise and that shit sounds exactly like jurassic park in your head also i think im in love with the cat wearing the glasses
i saw half of these in the commercial review videos that the nostalgia critic made, and because i watched those videos when i was like, 8, tons of canadian commercials are just permanently burned into my head
@ 1:13 and 1:53 Ahh. The sweet sound of Nanalan. This takes me back to mid-2015, when I first saw that video. @ 3:59 It's because you're Canadian, Adam! @ 11:12 A wild Scoot appeared!
I remember some of those, but in french. But man, haven't seen that cartoon tv since it originally aired. Im surprised that the AIDS didnt fund "dont put it in your mouth"
I remember almost all of these! The ones that really scared me/made me uncomfortable was the mouse trap one and the one with the fuckin muppet dude that took off his sunglasses sdfkdskl
9:25 there are _many_ Arm&Hammer cat litter ads. I know the product itself is not cat litter, but wow. Kooky? Their April 2021 commercial is an unsettling mockery of 1970s. Kind of helps me believe this could really be from that era.
