5 ‘Spooktacular’ Commercials From The Past That Will Gear You Up For The Halloween

It’s Halloween Day tomorrow and like each year, brands are busy creating engaging ad campaigns to interact with their existing and potential customers. Having transcended its American origins, Halloween offers brands a great opportunity to connect with diverse audiences and tap into the international market. And some companies that understand this have crafted some of the best Halloween campaigns in the past.

So, here are 5 memorable Halloween ads that will get you into the Halloween spirit. Let’s check these out.

1. Snickers: Grocery Store Lady (2010)

No compilation of the best Halloween commercials can ever be complete without the inclusion of this 2010 advert.

The premise of this somewhat creepy ad revolves around a female shopper, Mrs Jensen, who encounters a weird-looking 10-foot-tall costumed woman in the candy section of a grocery store. Interestingly, the weird-looking woman is actually two kids, one on top of the other, and their only goal is to convince Mrs Jensen that all kids love Snickers. But more than their goal, it’s the means that they resort to convincing Mrs Jensen that will blow your mind away. Check out this spine-tingling commercial to know what I’m talking about.

2. Ford: Spooky Car Wash (2014)

I love people going through haunted places and screaming their lungs off, especially when they don’t know that the place is haunted. This 2014 Ford commercial is based on such a premise where the participants didn’t know what they were in for.

The ad shows people being taken through a false test drive where they are instead creeped out by a spooky car wash. As their cars move through the wash, people dressed up in weird zombie and monster costumes are unleashed on their cars. Their reactions are hilarious and the spooky actors couldn’t have put on a better show!

3. Burger King: Scary Clown Night (2017)

Burger King came up with an excellent Halloween ad campaign in 2017 that urged people to come to their outlets dressed up as a clown to claim a free burger.

The advert is set on a dark, empty road where a guy on a bicycle sees clowns all around him. Naturally scared, he rushes off to the nearest Burger King outlet to seek refuge, only to realize that there are clowns in there too. The guy is seen as a clown in the ad claiming his free burger. Interestingly, he bears a close resemblance to Burger King’s rival, Ronald McDonald. It must have been co-incidental, don’t you think?

4. IKEA: The Shining (2014)

In 2014, the furniture company IKEA combined a child’s imagination with the concept of late-night shopping to mark its Halloween campaign.

The ad showcases a young boy moving around an IKEA store on his tricycle. As he moves through the store, the music changes to a scary tune, the lights start flickering, and the poor boy sees a man and a woman dressed up as nannies, beckoning him to come to play with them. Scared to the bone, the lad quickly shuts his eyes, only to find his parents in Halloween costumes when he opens his eyes. Pheww, imagine having a dream like that!

5. The Gorilla Glue Company: Sticky Situations (2015)

Glue brand Gorilla came up with a funny-yet-spooky Halloween commercial in 2015 that not only tapped upon the Halloween theme but also aced product placement like none other.

The advert showcases a guy being chased by a masked assassin. Just when the assassin is about to strike him with an axe, the blade, which is probably loose, flies off the handle. That’s when the Gorilla glue comes to the assassin’s rescue and he glues the blade to the handle. Now, you must be wondering if the guy managed to get away while the assassin was fixing the axe. Well, you don’t run away while your assassin is struggling with a loose axe blade, do you?

Wrapping Up

And that was a wrap of some of the best Halloween commercials from the past. Halloween allows brands to experiment with unique and spooky-themed ad campaigns, branding, and product design that align with the Halloween spirit, as these ads covered in the blog very well demonstrate. All that you need to do is figure out what your target audience loves and whether or not they’d choose to engage with your ad campaign.

We’ll be back tomorrow with the best Halloween commercials from 2023. Till then, stay tuned!