The Hall of Advertising | American Cancer Society - Smoking Fetus (1985, USA) @HallOfAdvertising | Uploaded August 2024 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
David Fincher's first film to trigger an uproar came in the form of a creepy PSA projecting an image of a latex puppet unborn child (built by crew members of ILM) smoking a cigarette, filling the womb with poison, to scare pregnant mothers into not doing it themselves. This was a bridge too far for mainstream networks at the time, with the American Cancer Society counting on interested local stations to air the ad after CBS and NBC believed this to be graphic and potentially upsetting to viewers. Needless to say, only one letter of disapproval was received, and the ad garnered widespread approval for its powerful imagery.
I've posted this before with a tacked-on end card displaying a phone card and a leaflet, but this is the original cut, with an ominous logo card and no narration, only the sound of a continuing heartbeat. YouTube's thumbnail algorithm, which used to be good but now loves children to a frankly disturbing degree, could only generate one thumbnail of the fetus' eye and leave the other two as a black screen. Pleasant dreams! Directed by David Fincher at Joseph Vogt Productions.
The production process behind this film is worth a read:
theasc.com/articles/american-cancer-societys-smoking-fetus
thefincheranalyst.com/commercials/1985-american-cancer-society-smoking-fetus-psa
David Fincher's first film to trigger an uproar came in the form of a creepy PSA projecting an image of a latex puppet unborn child (built by crew members of ILM) smoking a cigarette, filling the womb with poison, to scare pregnant mothers into not doing it themselves. This was a bridge too far for mainstream networks at the time, with the American Cancer Society counting on interested local stations to air the ad after CBS and NBC believed this to be graphic and potentially upsetting to viewers. Needless to say, only one letter of disapproval was received, and the ad garnered widespread approval for its powerful imagery.
I've posted this before with a tacked-on end card displaying a phone card and a leaflet, but this is the original cut, with an ominous logo card and no narration, only the sound of a continuing heartbeat. YouTube's thumbnail algorithm, which used to be good but now loves children to a frankly disturbing degree, could only generate one thumbnail of the fetus' eye and leave the other two as a black screen. Pleasant dreams! Directed by David Fincher at Joseph Vogt Productions.
The production process behind this film is worth a read:
theasc.com/articles/american-cancer-societys-smoking-fetus
thefincheranalyst.com/commercials/1985-american-cancer-society-smoking-fetus-psa
