When I was little I believed commericals on TV were "live" and re-enacted over and over again each time they were repeated.

One Saturday night our babysitter was trying to get us to sleep at 11 PM- I protested that the kids on the "slip and slide" commericial were still awake and working so I could stay up too; she asked if it the commercial wasn't "recorded" then why was it sunny outside at 11PM at night? My bubble burst then and there.

Joanne

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 at school a boy in my class started singing 'Goodness, Gracious, Great balls of Fire'one day. Because of particular advert for cereal at the time, I immediately told him to stop being so stupid and that the real words to the song were 'Goodness, Gracious, Great Bowls of Fibre!!' Obviously everyone laughed!!

Anon

When I was little--I would stand in the shower and do a Zest soap bar commerical--and then watch the tv for my commercial to be on. HHmm...never did!

JnMcKm

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.

I used to believe that "some assembly required", as heard in countless television ads, meant that some of the boxes in the stores held completely assembled products and some required assembly. I could never figure out how I could never pick a box that contained an assembled toy. Never lucky enough I thought.

Greg Shores

I used to believe that commercials on T.V. were true. I begged my mom to buy the Chips Ahoy cookies with colored sprinkles. After I ate one, I said "Gee, it doesn't taste like a party in my mouth."

K

When I would hear the Grand Am commercials, I thought the announcer was saying Gran Damn! I was very worried about what our society was coming to that we could swear on our commercials!

Anna

One day I asked my dad what Billboards were. He replied "they are showing things that you can buy". I thought that you could buy the woman who was sprawled all over a car!

Adam

When I was about 7, I thought that there were so many car commercials on TV because people bought cars once a week or so, and I always wondered why my parents kept the same old car for so long. 

marshmallowgodzilla 

When I was about 4, I saw this ad on TV for a promotion in which you could win a Gameboy (I think it had something to do with Breakaway bars) which showed a kid playing on one and ending up with holes in him (not sure of the specifics, but they were round holes you could see through, not bloody gunshot wounds or anything).

For a year or two after that, I thought that would really happen to me if I played on a Gameboy, and I was scared that someone would buy me one for Christmas or my birthday.

Hugh Jarse

My grandfather worked as a watchman for Smith Brothers Cough Drop company and would bring us small sample boxes of the product. I believed that the first names of the Smith Brothers were Trade and Mark because that was written under the picture of each.

Gaye Laman

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

When I was little, I thought the phrase in t.v. commercials "brought to you by" was one big word, "broughtoyoduby" meaning they would bring it to you if you buy it.

Ashley Nylin

When I read in magazines about 'adopt a whale/dolphin/third world child' I actually thought it would be sent to your home. I think I was about 12 when I finally read a whole article about it (see i had just read the title 'adopt a ...') and realised what I actually happened. I was so disappointed!

Catherine

When I was little and watched tv and they would have commercials that were advertising a contest or something and at the end they would always say "Void where prohibited." Except I always thought they said "Voidware prohibited" and I thought Voidware was like Tupperware and it was prohibited.

JennyLou

When I was a child my Mom helped me order a yellow plastic canteen with a red plastic strap on it from the back of a box of Rice Crispies. In the center of the canteen was a sticker showing Snap Crackle, and Pop. At the time, there was a coresponding TV commercial promoting the canteen and cereal which showed Snap, Crackle, and Pop moving around and talking on the canteen. I waited and waited for what seemed like a year to get the canteen...checking the mail every day. When it finally came, I excitedly opened the box and fully expected to see Snap, Crackle and Pop, moving around and having fun on the front of my new canteen. When I saw that the characters weren't moving...I was sure that the canteen must have been faulty.

Anon

When I was little I often saw an odd commercial where a struck match was put out with a small circular pad (Tucks medicated pads). From this I believed that these were special pads for putting out matches, which seemed quite odd but then the adult world was foreign to me then.

Shay

Bismillahir Rahman ir Rahim -- when I was a kid in the 80's I believed (along with a lot of adults, I suspect) that the "cola wars" were terribly serious. I imagined a nation divided in vicious opposition between two warring soft-drink superpowers, and followed developments anxiously, fearful that any day one would crush the other utterly and rise victorious to reign over all Americans with its tyrannical single-soda regime.

Ali

When I was a kid and they would say "void where prohibited" at the end of a commercial for some kind of contest, I would always wonder what kind of thing "voidwear" was and why it was prohibited. I guess somehow I realized that since no one talked about "voidwear", that it was something I should either know about already or something that I was not supposed to know about. Then one day...I think I was in my teens, driving even, that it hit me "oh void WHERE!!".

Sean