The Nun - YouTube Ads
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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 The Conjuring Universe. It was released in September 2018.
In August 2018, an advertising campaign for the film began on YouTube. However, instead of using the film'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 appears with an incredibly loud scream. (This was the only one found, meaning the others are lost.)
- 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 appears.
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
