Entertainment

Intense Heroin PSA Is The Saddest Super Bowl Commercial You Didn't See

by Emily Arata

Dead children, dangerous fathers and abuse: This year's Super Bowl commercials veered sharply away from humor into the darker side of humanity.

But, the advertisements you saw had nothing on those viewed by audiences in St. Louis. They watched a special heroin PSA paid for by the National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse.

In the clip, a teenage boy overdoses on heroin to the twangy strains of a peppy alternative song seemingly more suited to some kind of pancake house commercial.

NCADA reports, in the last eight years, more than 2,000 St. Louis-area residents died from heroin overdose, making the drug a subject that needs to be addressed.

If only this ad didn't bring back memories of Darren Aronofsky's overdramatic fried eggs PSA, 1987's "This Is Your Brain On Drugs."