The Nun - YouTube Ads
The Nun is a horror movie that came out in September 2018.
The Advertising Campaign
In August 2018, The Nun 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 pops up with a loud scream.
- Nothingness for 5 seconds, then The Nun pops up 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.
On August 15th, 2018, 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
WARNING! The following links contain screamers!
The Nun, Volume Ad: youtube.com/watch?v=N436v51QBkk (WARNING: Video is 4 seconds long, so be warned!)
Official YouTube statement regarding the ad: https://twitter.com/TeamYouTube/status/1029185298524123137
