Halloween: 10 Terrifying Things From The 90s
6. Advertising
At their most basic level, adverts are supposed to work by making the viewer think 'oh right, so that new bodyspray will physically force women to copulate with me?' or 'so if I chew this unpleasant, flavourless gum, men will find my companionship marginally less terrible?' They're aspirational, establishing a link between the product and the potential social status of the purchaser. But what happens if the purchaser has nothing to aspire towards? What would adverts be like then? They would be terrifying is what. The 90s was a time of strong economic growth across the world, and certainly in the United Kingdom. The centrist policies of John Major and Tony Blair brought about an increase in living standards and disposable income, with the knock-on effect being the gradual disintegration of class boundaries. Oiks spent all their money on cars, coke and champagne, while toffs spent all their money on looking like oiks. 'Normality' was aspirational. In this sort of climate, advertisers had to be more creative to stand out from the crowd. The following examples achieve that, if nothing else. Dunlop's 'Tested for the Unexpected', directed by Tony Kaye (American History X) is a swirling phantasmagoria of decadent colours, bondage gear, out of control pianos and The Velvet Underground. It sticks in the memory, like any good advert should, but it does so with the aesthetics of an opium dream, with eerie faces looming at the viewer in almost subliminal fashion. The 'nightmare face' was a particularly popular trope in 90s advertising, best demonstrated in Sony's 'Mental Wealth' campaign. These depict a cheery Scottish girl blethering on in whimsical fashion about landing 'on your own moon'. It's vaguely inspirational or it would be, if the girl's eyes weren't on opposite sides of her freakishly wide skull. Digital trickery transformed a real person into a sprite straight out of one of Sony's games, and the result is a creature from the dark heart of the uncanny valley. The worst part is when she giggles, and anyone flicking through channels at one in the morning would certainly be in need of some mental wealth after...whatever...that is.
The 'Judderman' series took a more old fashioned approach. Said fiend stalked a lowly Nordic shepherd, tempting him with the promise of a Schnapps-based alcopop beverage that inflicted judders on its victims. The commercials were gorgeously directed in the style of German expressionist cinema, but cinematography be damned, the Judderman was scary on a primal level, a malevolent 'spindle-limbed' creep who probably still follows you home every night, peeping in through your blinds. Whether they meant to or not, Bacardi succeeded in frightening kids off alcohol...for all of five seconds (am I right guys? Am I right? High five me!)
In the realm of print advertising, a beleaguered Conservative Party sought to win the 1997 General Election by painting Tony Blair as a tax-raising Socialist. Actually, scratch that. They sought to win by painting him as the Son of Lucifer:
Guess what? It worked (well, it was definitely scary. As for the election, the Conservatives lost it. They lost it in a landslide. Not an actual landslide though, that would be silly).