From the hilariously spooky and cleverly sinister to the downright frightening, Halloween is that time when PR and marketing folk don their ‘creative’ witches hats to produce the creepiest campaigns of the year.
Whether promoting a new release, film or popular product, Halloween has seen even the most familiar everyday products take a turn to the dark side, all in the name of a scarily good Halloween campaign. Here are three of our favourites:
Up first, is perhaps one of the most terrifying viral marketing pranks to date, the ‘Devil Baby Attacks New York.’ The hugely popular YouTube video shows a demonic robot baby roaming the streets of New York in a stroller, scaring the wits out of unsuspecting people to promote the release of horror flick ‘Devil’s Due’ in January 2014. A perfect example of fiendish viral marketing at its best…or should we say worst?
US laundry detergent brand, Tide captured some ‘Paranormal Activity’ last year using Vine to spoof a few of the most famous horror films to scare off stains! This seven-second mini-video emulating The Ring is arguably one of their best, with the amusing and effective direction of spooking up the product leaving us ‘Scared Stainless!’
Finally, who can forget when campaign war broke out over Halloween in 2013 between fizzy-drink giants Coca-Cola and Pepsi?
With Pepsi initially releasing a print advert of a Pepsi can ‘scarily’ clad in a Coca-Cola cape for Halloween, Coca-Cola bit right back, ingeniously replicating the advert with the simple line “Everybody wants to be a hero!” Touché.
Image credit : Shutterstock
As one of our favourite times of year, Halloween gives us the perfect excuse to dress up. We will be donning our best vampire teeth, fake blood and other ghoulish wear tonight – so watch out for some terrifying photo updates!
Happy Halloween!