It's weird to look back at the Michael Jackson Pepsi ad from 1984 (the one that actually aired) and think that it caused so many problems in his life. US Weekly got hold of the footage that never aired, of Jackson's scalp catching on fire, causing second and third degree burns to his scalp and face. The magazine claims that this accident is what led to MJ's addiction to both painkillers and plastic surgery.

This is surreal footage, and at first I thought it was footage from the TV movie made about Jackson's life, but it's real. That's Miko Brando in the hat helping Jackson. Brando has been on Larry King Live many times recently. After the jump, the ad that aired. It's worth noting that Jackson went on to do other Pepsi ads after this.

Back in 1984, Michael Jackson was filming a TV commercial for Pepsi and got severely injured when his hair caught fire from a special effects explosion. I'm assuming that the finished commercial has a body double during that scene (or they used footage from another take), though Michael can be seen in other parts of the commercial with his brothers. Some people close to Jackson say that he started taking painkillers after this incident. (Here's footage of Jackson after it happened.)