adverts

When I was younger, there used to be commercials of kids that would put on underwear featuring prints of cartoon characters, and would proceed to transform into these characters. So when my mom bought me a pair of He-Man briefs, I was really excited. Didn't work though...shattered my world for a while.

Dan Sheffield

There used to be a commercial that talked about how "peanut buttery" one particular brand of peanut butter was. As the commercial went on, a bunch of peanuts were poured into a jar, the jar was shaken several times, and when the jar was opened, the peanuts had turned into creamy delicious peanut butter.

Gosh, I spent a lot of time after shaking a jar full of peanuts, but they never turned into peanut butter. I still kind of expect that to work somehow...

Rob

When I was about 4 or 5 and I used to watch TV commercials, I remember seeing a commercial for Charcoal rocks for the Barbeque Grill, In the commercial it showed the man taking out the Rocks, then it showed a nice juicy hamburger. I thought (until I was almost 8!) that you were able to buy all kind of rocks and when you put them in the flames on the grill, the formed into all different foods! I thought that you could buy Steak Rocks, Hamburger Rocks, Chicken Rocks etc.!!!! Like it were some kind of dehydrated space food!!!

Nina Burke

My mother used to get incredibly frustrated when trying to order clothes for me out of a catalog. I persisted in the belief that if I wore the clothes that were pictured, I would look identical to the person who was wearing them in the catalog -- right down to hair and eye color.

Joan

In the 1970s, Life Bouy Soap commercials showed people stepping out of the shower, squeaky clean, and two feet off the ground. I remember buying a bar of soap and excitedly taking a shower, expecting to "walk on air" like the people did in the ads. Two seconds after I stepped out of the shower it dawned on my how stupid I had been to believe the commercials.

Whitney

When I was little, I used to think the commercial advertising the Mitsubishi car was actually a Mr Fishy Car.

Anon

I used to believe that films on TV used to carry on during the adverts. So if there was a car chase, I was missing it while they showed ads for dog food. I always wanted the ads to be really short so that I didn't miss anything important in the plot.

David E Flavell

When I was about six or seven, I used to watch a TON of T.V.. There were always those sponsor children commercials on, and I never understood them. I used to think that if you called, you would have to switch places with a family from like, Africa or something. And they would get to come and live in your house, and your family would go out and live in poverty. I believed this for years, and when I finally asked my Mom about it, she told me what REALLY happened. I never told her what I actually thought until last week. She laughed at me.

Caitlin

when i was about 8 or 9 years old, i thought some one would take a poll of every thing you buy, and send the right commercials to your T.V. it never struck me as odd that some commercials were for things we didn't want. i also thought if we bought something from a commercial, we would stop getting that commercial. i remember once getting really annoyed because one commercial was being played over and over, and i said to my mom, "can we just go buy that, so they'll leave us alone?" and she was really confused.

kaci

When i saw signs for stores advertising "adult toys", i assumed they were just like regular toys, but they were only for adults because they were more breakable.

Mary

Here in England we have a Toys R Us advert that contains the lyrics: " 'There's millions,' says Geoffrey, 'All under one roof.'"

I actually thought they were singing, "There's millions of debris all under one roof," and was lead to belief all the toys at Toys R Us were cheap because they were made of debris.

Natski

I used to believe that if you called the number on one of those Christian Children's Fund commercials they would actually send you a child. I was an only child and always begged my mom and dad to send me a baby from South America.

Holly

I used to believe that if my mom used a household cleaner other than Mr. Clean, that Mr. Clean would come and kill us all.

Rachel

You know how in the Energizer commercials, there's a little pink bunny banging on a drum? I always thought they were commercials for the bunny instead of the battery! I still kind of want a little toy like that!

Shirley B.

There is a scene in Charlie and the Choolate Fatory when Willy Wonka explains that he has developed technology to send candy bars through the television. I was very young when I first saw this. I spent a good deal of time trying to convince my mother that our dinner could just come out of the television. After all what were t.v. dinners?

Once when he wanted to annoy my mother, Dad went out and got some McDonald's and waited for a commercial. I came back from getting one of my dolls to find hamburgers and french fries in front of the television.

Mom had a hard time with me after that. I was convinced our t.v. was broken, it only did it the once.....

Anacita

I used to believe when they said 'no tears' shampoo for kids, they really meant no matter how much of it got in my eye, it wouldn't hurt. I believed this for only about a couple of hours. I put shampoo directly in my eye after watching that commercial.

Andrea

I used to believe that if I said 'Hey Kool-Aid!' loudly enough, the giant pitcher would come crashing through the wall like in the TV commercials. But then I would be in big trouble for destroying the house and so I never tried.

queeneve

When I was little, about 5 or 6, there was a commercial on TV for facial cream that would take ten years off your age. I was terrified that my mom would by some and somehow I would accidentally use it then dissappear because I was still under ten years old.

Anon

When I was a kid, there was a TV ad for pizza sauce and the jingle said, "Open yourself....some Pizza Quick Sauce. And open your own....pizzeria!". That was the first time that I'd heard the word "pizzeria", and thought that it must be some special type of diarrhea that you got from eating pizza.

Joe Martinez

when i was little (about 6) i thought that ad breaks were so the writers of the show had time to think up what came next.
i asked mum and she said it was true

flicky