Birthday Cake PSA

The birthday cake PSA was a public service announcement aired in the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The PSA warned about the dangers of respiratory illness, and focused on a child being unable to blow out the candles on their birthday cake because of their condition. Despite several online accounts of the PSA, it remains lost, and the organization that created it is unknown.

Plot

The commercial features an unseen boy attempting to blow out candles on a birthday cake. Some sources claim that the birthday cake had dinosaur decorations on it. The boy cannot stop coughing and is unable to blow out the candles. One user believes the PSA was about pneumonia, but others are unsure. It may have been about asthma, whooping cough, or secondhand smoke. The goal of the commercial was likely to convince parents to vaccinate their children and prevent such conditions.

Airings

No witness has given an exact date, though all agree that it aired sometime in the late '90s or early 2000s. One user remembers seeing the commercial on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network, while another recalls it airing late at night on HGTV. It is possible that the PSA was produced by a regional organization on the East Coast, as it was seen in New York and Maryland.

The Search

The earliest known post about the PSA was made to r/tipofmytongue on April 17, 2022. Another post was made to r/pifsandpsas later that year on September 27. The Lost Commercials Foundation created a channel for the search on their Discord server on September 28.

On March 31, 2025, blameitonjorge uploaded a video covering the search. Several viewers of the video commented that they also recalled seeing the commercial, mainly on Cartoon Network.

How Can I Help?

* Watching Nickelodeon/Cartoon Network commercial breaks from the timeframe on YouTube
* Finding blank VHS tapes from the timeframe
* Researching potential organizations behind the PSA