Boo! Scared yet? The fear factor in TV ads

Posted: Thursday, September 03, 2009 6:00 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under: TV commercials

If a TV commercial can scare you, they can get you to buy their product, and don't think they don't know it. If you're suddenly frightened into believing that you smell, or you're somehow hideously unattractive or uncool unless you have their product, that's one scare tactic. And then there are the less subtle ones -- ads where people claim your life or your property is at risk, but they can save you, if you just fork over the purchase money.

AAAAUGH! Your commercial is trying to scare me!

I understand that  Brinks-turned-Broadview Security is an alarm company and they're trying to tell you how their product could protect you. But that doesn't mean I can't make fun of the way they go about it.

In one ad, a woman is dropped off at the Aaron Spelling-size mansion where she apparently lives alone, having just had a bad breakup with Scary Stalker Man. The very second New Guy drives off, Scary Stalker Man rushes out of his car and kicks in her door ... only to be frightened away by the alarm.

In another one, a woman is prepping for a first date, and hears a noise. Thinking he arrived early, she starts to go downstairs, only to find a burglar. And in another, Soccer Mom and Sweet Daughter are playing in the backyard, not noticing Scary Stalker Man peering through their fence. Instead of attacking them in the yard, he waits until they go inside and set the alarm before smashing his way in.

It's always women in danger, sometimes children. The burglar is always a fairly clean-cut guy who works alone, never a stringy-haired meth head or a bunch of gang teens. He may as well be wearing a black-and-white striped convict outfit and carrying a bag with a dollar sign on it. And he never jimmies a lock or gets in through an open window or door someone forgot to lock, he VIOLENTLY SMASHES his way in, noise be damned! It's also funny to me how in each case, the phone rings, and although the receiver is always conveniently handy to our newly terrified female in distress, she's never thought to dial 911 before the alarm company calls.

Alarm companies need to sell fear. Do car insurance companies? I haven't seen one lately, but one company -- was it Allstate? -- used to run ads where you got the driver's-eye view of a car accident as it happened. They freaked me out every time, and I started to resent them, although apparently not enough to remember who put them on.

Not all car insurance ads sell fear. Allstate does have a hilarious and smart ad where a friend brags about his new car to a pal eating at a diner. He can't hear his friend warning him that the brand new car is rolling back into the path of a semi. "It's gonna hit that truck!" he yells. "There's no need to swear!" replies the oblivious pal.

OnStar ads also sell fear. It's more than a little creepy to see an accident and then hear the OnStar rep trying to talk to the injured driver, who mumbles incomprehensible things back as, presumably, his or her lifeblood drains away. I also love the one which shows an entire city's fire, police, and medical departments jump into action to answer the call for a one-car accident. I've been in four-car pileups that didn't get that kind of service. And here's my petty nit-pick: Why does the OnStar dispatcher always say "CRAH-sh," like she's never pronounced the word before? Listen carefully, she does it in both ads.

Which ads are trying to scare you into buying their products, and does it work?

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