The Nun - YouTube Ads
{{Wikipedia:The Nun (2018 film)|The Nun]] is a Gothic supernatural horror film directed by Corin Hardy and written by Gary Dauberman, from a story by Dauberman and James Wan. It is a spin-off of 2016's The Conjuring 2 and the {{Wikipedia:The Conjuring Universe (franchise)|The Conjuring Universe]]. It was released in September 2018.
In August 2018, The Movie started its advertising campaign on YouTube. However, instead of using the movie's trailer, users were instead tricked by a 5-second unskippable ad by The Nun.
The ads would lure the user into a false sense of security, by doing one of the following:
- A few seconds of a volume icon going up and down (much like MacOS/iOS) for a few seconds, to trick the user into thinking it's an advert by Apple, before The Nun pops up with an incredibly loud scream.
- A fake buffering logo, to trick the user into thinking the ad is struggling to load, then The Nun (Valak) appears with a loud scream.
- Nothing about 5 seconds, then The Nun pops up along with a loud scream.
- A spinning ball, much like the "Beach ball of death" found on Apple Macs.
- Fades into a hall, then slowly moves down the room, a bell tolls, then The Nun pops up.
After many users complaints, YouTube pulled the ads from their site for containing "shocking content".
Other users claim a very similar ad is on Instagram & Snapchat, but rather than being one of the aforementioned ads, it's a flashing warning sign.
Links
NOTE: The following links contains a screamer!
- The video is 4 seconds long, so be warned! youtube.com/watch?v=N436v51QBkk
- Official YouTube's statement regarding the ad: twitter.com/TeamYouTube/status/1029185298524123137
