A long-running Advertising Campaign that ran from 1956 to 2016 for the Raid insecticide line.
The shtick is simple—a few insects or other vermin enter a household, planning to live off of its members parasitically. Then, an invisible hand sprays them with Raid insecticide until they no longer exist. Cue the campaign's tagline.
As the company started exporting its products internationally, the ads have been translated into other languages, such as Spanish.
Tropes:
- Brand Name Takeover: Raid has become synonymous with insecticide.
- Death Cry Echo: Played for Laughs. The most iconic part of the ads is the pests screaming "RRRAAAAAAAIIIDDD!!!" before dying. As it's several vermin doing it, it has an echo effect.
- Homogenous Multinational Ad Campaign: Most international raid commercials use the original graphics with local voice actors translating the lines to each country's language. The Talking Pests don't vary nor does the basic shtick of the ad.
- Oh, Crap!: The commercials for Raid pest killers have been doing this for years, with whatever Talking Pest in the commercial shouting "RAAAAAAAAAAID!" before dying.
- Rogues Gallery: Usually, the pests featured consist of flies, ants, mosquitoes, and cockroaches. Sometimes spiders and moths show up.
- Side-by-Side Demonstration: In some ads, the homeowner first tries to kill the bugs with a blank spray insecticide. It doesn't even make the pests sneeze. Then, the same sequence is repeated with a Raid can, which easily erases the vermin from existence.
- Tagline: From 1956 to 2016, "Raid Kills Bugs Dead" and "It smells good, but it really, kills them dead".
- Talking Pest: Ads for the campaign tend to start with a Terrible Trio of cockroaches, mosquitoes, or other insects infiltrating a house or revealing themselves from the cracks or under the furniture. They then have some dialogue lines about how they are going to pester the humans or what great life is to live off of them. Then a Raid tin appears out of nowhere, sprays its contents onto them, and kills 'em dead.
