GLOBAL – Halloween is upon us again, and perhaps the funnest holiday of the year makes for great material and venue for some interesting advertising.
When it comes to brands, this year’s trick-or-treaters include more than just candy brands – even furniture and insurance companies got in on the action.
From candy-fueled kids, a controversial conversation on costumes, and one effed-up turn of events, find yourselves some real treats and some disturbing tricks in our round-up below:
‘Bounce Back’ for Vytautas Mineral Water by Superior
This ad for a Lithuanian water brand starts out innocently enough, but turns disturbing in mere seconds when a man in a coma wakes up to the sight of an all-too familiar sight on Halloween: the sexy nurse.
‘The Effects of Halloween Candy’ for Crest by Publicis Kaplan Thaler
A scene no doubt familiar to parents with trick or treating kids, the funny ad shows a group of costume-clad kids unleashing a sugar rush after being given copious amounts of candy.
‘Halloween Costumes’ for Subway by MediaCom
The brand raised some eyebrows for its alleged sexism when it released this ad, in which a woman runs down a list of “sexy” Halloween costumes that a female colleague needs to stay in shape for.
‘Nomsters’ for Oreo by 360i
This ad made use of claymation and Vine’s few-second format to show the creation of candy monsters that are more adorable than scary.
‘Halloween Hills’ for Target
Target takes Trick or Treat online by creating a virtual neighborhood on Instagram that users can click on for DIY photo tutorials of treats such as cupcakes, or tricks, such as Halloween decorations.
‘Halloween’ for Ikea Singapore by BBH Asia Pacific
The ad promotes Ikea Singapore’s late closing hours by paying tribute to classic thriller flick, The Shining.
‘Twisted’ for Snickers by Latinworks
Snickers’ global premise, “you’re not you when you’re hungry” seems tailor-made for Halloween, as shown in this ad, where the hungry people in question are not only not themselves, but are scary, demon-possessed beings.
‘Skittles Web’ for Skittles by DDB Chicago
For a candy brand it is surprising that this is Skittles’ first crack at Halloween advertising. In the ad, a questionably friendly spider helps unstick a trapped boy drawn to its web by some Skittles.
‘Get Lolli – The Instagram Horror Game’ for Chupa Chups by BBH Asia Pacific
Another campaign that makes clever use of social media, Get Lolli takes users on an Instagram Halloween adventure that they can write themselves by clicking on tags that leads them to finger puppet videos that are, again, more cute than scary.
‘Horror Movie – It’s What You Do’ for Geico by The Martin Agency
The stupidity of horror movie protagonists is highlighted in this ad for car insurance.
