adverts

Avon commercials used the slogan "Avon, you've never looked so good". Meaning you will better than ever if you use Avon. I thought it meant "you never look very good so put this make-up on"

Marc L.

When I was a child, I was deathly afraid of Mister Clean. I cannot explain this irrational fear...he just scares the hell out of me, to the point where I had nightmares about the advertising icon. Whenever a "Mister Clean" household cleanser ad would play itself out on my family's television set, my mother claims I would run from the room screaming.

hong_kong_cavalier

you know how you get those sears catalogs in the mail? well, when i was little i use to think that the people modeling the clothes were for sale. it made sense at the time, everything else they showed on it was for sale so it didn't ever cross my mind that i was wrong

steven

When I was a kid I watched this vacuum commercial where there was a tornado, and this lady got her vacuum cleaner and sucked up the tornado. So when I was little I used to ask my parents "Why don't they just suck the tornado up with a vacuum cleaner?"

Anon

In the mid to late 80s there was a commercial for Halls cough drops, and it was some guy walking into a giant long square hallway (a blown-up package of cough drops), and as he walks through it it's all colorful... almost like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and by the time he walks out the other end his cough is gone. My dad told me that when I was really little he caught me sitting in front of the air cooler in my wet bathing suit in the middle of winter, trying to catch a cold so I could "go to the halls of medicine"!

Mel

The slogan for coors beer used to be "tap the rockies" I figured that if one day i got the chance to go to colorado and and literally tap on the rocky mountains, beer would come out.

wheresmyhouse

I used to believe that if you used the kids' shampoos that said 'no tears' it would make you happy.

Emmy

When I was a child, I once saw a commercial for Nutra-Sweet while I was visiting my grandma. The commercial showed bananas and milk, so I believed that if you ate bananas chopped up in a bowl of milk it would turn into sugar. I remember eating this concoction several times but alas it never turned into sugar.

Laura W.

When I was a child, living in Western New York State, our family drove up to Lake Erie every summer. We always passed a billboard that advertised DUTCH BOY PAINTS.It was a brand name. But I didn't realize that. I kept watching ahead, waiting, as I wanted to watch the little Dutch boy paint, in his funny cap, billowy blue pants, and funny little wooden shoes. We kept passing signs, but I never got to see the little dutch boy paint!

Joan, in Australia now

When I was a little kid I used to think that the ads on TV were aimed specifically at me and when I bought the item being advertized they would stop showing the commertial. I hated the ad for a doll that turned into a cupcake (don't ask) and begged my mother for it so that they would stop showing the commertial.

Anon

You'll see where this is going, but I can't help myself.

When I was 7 or 8 I REALLY wanted some Transformers underwear. I kept telling my mom how I HAD TO have some. The reason for this is because I saw commercials where, as kids put on the Optimus Prime underwear they turned into the big robot/semi truck themselves.

When I finally got them I was devasted. I tried pulling them several times, but to no avail. I screamed for my mom and had to have her break the horribly disappointing news.

-Dave

I use to be convinced that commercials were only made by companies that were doing badly. I felt so clever telling my parents that I've discovered their secret plot to make us buy products that didn't work very well.

Anon

When I was little I was terrified of a commercial with dancing pants. Every time the commercial would come on my mom would act like she was calling the cable company to tell them to quit airing it. That would work until the commercial came on again, and then she'd have to "get angry" at them for not listening to her the first time.

Kyla

When I was little I used to beleive that if you threw Trix yogurt on the wall, everything would be colorful, like in the commerical. So one day I thought that our wall looked boring, so i threw my yougurt on to it. My mom still laughs about that.

Anon

When I was a kid I loved commercial jingles like the Barbie commercial: "We girls, can do anything... WHITE Barbie" (despite my parents pointing out it was "right Barbie?" I insisted it made sense because the doll was, in fact, Caucasian.

WEBBMD

From the time I was about 3 till I was (embarrassingly enough) about 16 or so, I thought that the Bavarian lady on the logo of the Schneider's Meats company had gigantic ears, when it was in fact the sides of the bonnet she was wearing. For some reason I never questioned why she would have huge freakish ears. I guess I'm a person accepting of differences?

Cat

I remember thinking that companies who advertized TV's on TV were silly. If you could see the commercial, obviously you didn't need a TV!

I also could never get my head around how you could "SAVE" money by buying something.

Holly

When the advert breaks came on tv I used to belive that when they said "We'll be right back after these messages" that the tv people were reading mail.

Tibbie

When I was little I used to think when movie advertisments said "see it at a theater near you" you had to see the movie within a certain number of miles from your house. I always wonderd how they would know where you lived.

Anon

When I was about four or five, The Publisher's clearing House ran a commercial that said; "we'll find you, wherever you are." I guess I took it very literally, because not long after, my dad took a different route to my grandmother's house, and got lost. I was'nt scared though- I was certain it was just a matter of time before PCH came to the rescue.

K.O.