Trick or Treat? Ghoulish Halloween Advertisements

Boo!

Okay, so that's ineffective in this context... But, 'tis the season.  My favorite season of the year.

That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone following my blogs and other writings.  My humor is dark.  Couple that with a love for creepy movies and history, and you can see why Christmas just doesn't cut it for me.

The marketing engines don't disappoint around Halloween.  The season seems to give silent permission to come up with bizarre advertisements, to cut loose with the stuff that the ad guys & gals have been sitting on for most of the year.  It unleashes the inner ad-demon - sometimes to great effect.

Halloween Ad # 1: Guinness

I love this.  Minimalist, cartoony and to the point.  An excellent example of the use of negative space an clarity.

As I write this, it's 9 AM - and I sort'a want a Guinness right now.  Guess the ad works!  I usually don't crave one until around noon...

Halloween Ad # 2: Wellington Zoo

Sort'a like a real life version of the Guinness ad...

The Wellington Zoo has kid's sleep-over nights - which I think is really cool.  I would have loved spending the night at the zoo when I was a kid.

That being said... The idea of waking up and seeing THAT...  I don't think there's enough detergent in the world to clean out what I would do in my pants.

Halloween Ad # 3: Honda

Now I know what Batman drives on his days off.

Halloween Ad # 4: Burger King

This is just... wrong.  The idea of sentient tomatoes being hacked up by psychopaths is a bit disturbing.  I can just see little Billy in the kitchen hackin' up tomatoes (or kittens or his sister) with a machette, then blaming the ad when Mom freaks out.  I'm not sure something like this is totally positive for the company's image - particularly with such a large kid's demographic. 

But I could be wrong... It's cartoonish and kind'a fun in a twisted way.  My favorite character is the little green pickle guy in the street just to the right of the tree.