Halloween 2023—See all the spooky brand stunts, from M&M’s to Krispy Kreme

Halloween is nearly upon us once again and, like clockwork, companies around the world are getting in on the frightening fun with campaigns, products and stunts that range from the endearing to the interactive to the downright bizarre. Whether you’re in the market for chocolate, toilet paper or streaming TV, odds are some of the brands you associate with are capitalizing on the Halloween festivities this October. See some of this year’s spookiest Halloween marketing moves below. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Airheads Scary movies and candy are two staples of Halloween, which is why Airheads and agency Highdive decided to combine the two, tasking six filmmakers to use artificial intelligence to create short horror films that incorporate the candy brand’s famous red balloon. The “A.I.rheads Scarefest” shorts mix humor and fright—the latter enhanced by the uncanny valley effects of AI-generated imagery—to tell a story in less than three minutes. The films can be found on a dedicated website until the end of November, with fans encouraged to try their hand at AI filmmaking for a chance at $2,000 and a year’s supply of Airheads. Angel Soft Americans are poised to spend $37 per person on their Halloween costumes this year, according to Statista data. But just one inexpensive roll of Angel Soft can be spun into a timeless classic—a toilet paper mummy—on Oct. 31. The brand’s cartoon infant mascot, Angel, stars in a new animation by Grey New York Psyop, while a trio of “celebrity mom-fluencers” with a total of more than 1.5 million followers will mummify their little ones with toilet paper. Angel Soft is also running a sweepstakes inviting people to post images of friends, relatives and even pets wrapped up in TP for the chance to win a $500 gift card. BLK Sometimes reality is scarier than fiction. That’s exactly what BLK, a Match Group-owned dating platform for the Black community, is tapping into for a frightening campaign called “Halloween Horror Stories: Dating Edition”—a series of animated short films inspired by users’ real-life nightmare dates. Featuring everything from awkward identity mix-ups to a high-speed police chase to a potential brush with an accused murderer, the videos were inspired by stories shared by BLK users via an in-app questionnaire. The stories can be found on BLK’s YouTube and Instagram pages. Burger King BK recruited director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, whose horror credits include the slasher film “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” and much of FX’s “American Horror Story: Coven,” for a 60-second horror short that dropped on Friday the 13th. A mix of horror and camp, “The Call” directed viewers to a website where they could sign up to get a creepy call themselves. Agency: Dentsu Creative. Ad Age Creativity Bookmark our section covering the best in brand creativity every day Read more here Clash of Clans The Clash of Clans Builder is normally a mild-mannered dude, but he’s downright possessed in this new ad—a parody of horror trailers promoting the game’s “spine-tingling” Halloween update. “Clash-O-Ween” is going on all through October, with the Builder wreaking havoc in the village as the game introduces spooky temporary rewards, characters and skins. David New York made the spot. Disney+ While Halloween is usually about ghouls, gore and fear, Disney+ has collaborated with flower delivery service Fresh Sends for a promotion that’s arguably more sweet than scary. The companies have co-created a limited-edition floral bouquet dubbed the “Disney+HallowSend” featuring red, orange and purple flowers and custom Disney+ Hallowstream packaging, with every purchase including a $25 gift card to the streaming service. The arrangement can be bought on Fresh Sends’ website and comes in three sizes—mini, regular and full—priced at $57, $77 and $107, respectively. General Mills This summer, General Mills said it was adding a new character to its Monster Cereal lineup for the first time in 35 years—Carmella Creeper, a young zombie DJ who’s the face of a new caramel apple-flavored cereal and who debuted with her own EDM remix of the song “Monster Mash.” For Halloween, the company partnered with VMLY&R Commerce to make Carmella the star of “Creep to a New Beat,” a shoppable AR experience in partnership with Walmart, in which consumers can get behind the turntable and remix their own version of “Monster Mash.” It’s being promoted on social media with influencers and celebrities, including “Dancing with the Stars” personality Cheryl Burke and an Iowa family known online as the Misener Crew. Hulu Hulu is taking its frights from the screen to the real world with a takeover of the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood for an immersive haunted house-meets-screening room experience dubbed “Huluween: Now Screaming.” Featuring costumed actors and sets inspired by six of the streamer’s scariest shows—including “American Horror Story,” “Annabelle” and “The Boogeyman”—the attraction is divided into three ascending zones: scary, very scary and very, very scary. Guests will also have the opportunity to score some Hulu-branded merch. The experience will be open from 4 to 10:15 p.m. on Oct. 29-31. Admission is free, though reservations are encouraged. Hi-Chew Hi-Chew set out to answer a bone-chilling question as old as time—can you convince a ghost to possess a bag of candy? The brand sent bags of Hi-Chews to three of America’s spookiest locations—the eerie Winchester Mystery House, the allegedly haunted Belcourt of Newport mansion and Colorado’s storied Stanley Hotel of “The Shining” fame—in a comical attempt to see if they’d return possessed by spirits of the dead. “Haunted Hi-Chew,” by MullenLowe, features short films, influencer partnerships and custom artworks by “Goosebumps” illustrator Robert Ball, all tied to a contest to win a private tour of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. View this post on Instagram A post shared by HI-CHEW (@hichewusa) Jack in the Box The fast-food chain created an eight-minute horror short called “Feeding Time,” made with the help of horror writers Asha Michelle Wilson, Kara Lee Corthron, Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, who have written for “American Horror Story,” “Saw” and “You.” The concept came from Small Girls PR, with execution handled by TBWA\Chiat\Day LA. See the trailer below. Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, inspired by a study that found 40% of Brits have been “ghosted” by a friend or family member in the past year, is giving away thousands of “Ghosted Boxes” to spur ignorees to reconnect with their ignorers. Handled by Good Relations, the “Ghosted Boxes” could be ordered via a dedicated web page this month, either as a digital coupon code or as a physically empty donut box sent in the mail, both of which could be redeemed in-store for a free four-pack of Original Glazed during the week leading up to Halloween. Lenovo To showcase a more playful side of Halloween, Lenovo joined forces with three digital artists to create custom “mixed reality art” that illustrates the power of the brand’s new Yoga Pro 9i laptop, on which the digital works were created. Crafted by ad agency SuperHeroes, the whimsical series features seasonal urban themes ranging from a pipe spewing skulls and pumpkins to a Queens row house being transformed into a jack-o-lantern. The works are featured on the individual artists’ Instagram pages under the hashtag #LenovoInspired, with additional behind-the-scenes posts explaining how each computer-generated environment was created. M&M’s M&M’s is deploying its first-ever “Halloween Rescue Squad” to ensure no home prematurely runs out of candy. With nearly half of Americans worried about depleting their candy stock—and 89% say they’ve eaten some themselves on Halloween night—M&M’s partnered with food delivery company Gopuff to alleviate those fears. Starting at 3 p.m. ET on Oct. 31, the brand will be dispatching free M&M’s and other Mars Wrigley products to homes, all in under an hour. Also, consumers who spend $15 to 30 on eligible candies before the end of October can upload their receipts for a free three-month subscription to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service. Pop-Tarts While Pop-Tarts aren’t traditionally given out on Halloween, that hasn’t stopped the brand from getting in on the fun with a campaign tied to one of Adult Swim’s longest-running shows. A new ad takes place in the stop-motion “Robot Chicken” universe, featuring a trio of the brand’s “Agents of Crazy Good” spokespastries (which launched earlier this year) working alongside a mad scientist to create a robotic toaster that’ll help them realize “every Pop-Tart’s dream: to be eaten anywhere at any time.” The spot for the Kellanova-owned brand (formerly part of Kellogg Co.) is currently running across TV, YouTube and social media. Stink Studios Stink Studios launched Creep Fake, interactive AI-driven experience that invites users to confront a sinister twin version of themselves on a custom-built mobile site. Creep Fake employs a blend of generative AI technologies, allowing users to engage in a conversation with their malevolent twin before encountering an unexpected AI-driven surprise. Ad Age A-List & Creativity Awards Final deadline approaching for annual program Enter here Twix Ever thought Twix was more than a regular candy bar but struggled to articulate how? Well, you’re not alone, with the Mars brand playing off that loss for words in two humorous Halloween ads. Created by Mars’ global agency The&Partnership, the spooky ads feature trick-or-treaters’ encounters with vampires and zombies while describing the extra oomph they get out of a Twix bar—succinctly settling on “more-errr,” with the monsters’ grunts providing the “errr” portion. The 15-second spots—one of which features Twix’s seasonal “Ghoulish Green” variety—are running across broadcast TV and online video, as well as social media. Uber Eats Uber Eats partnered with Hollywood studios to turn horror movie quotes into Uber Eats promo codes. You get 60% off candy if you win. A new code drops every day until Halloween. Rethink New York handled the effort.

Halloween 2023—See all the spooky brand stunts, from M&M’s to Krispy Kreme

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