Halloween Special

I love Halloween. Creativity, excitement, and inevitably, the competition for best costumes of various categories (scariest, funniest, most scantily-clad, etc.). I’ve seen some excellent examples of brand costumes (the usual suspects: iPod/iPhone, M&Ms, Facebook, YouTube) and my favourite classic ensemble is Fruit of the Loom.

For 2012, here is an incredibly innovative Instagram costume, that photographer Eric Micotto created, using his Nikon camera and iPad (it actually works!):

Old Spice Guy gets my vote for best advertising-related costume, despite the lack of effort required.

The Most Interesting Man in the World is a great one too, and the popularity of both characters really speaks to the strength of these brand elements.

My favorite one for 2012 is actor Chord Overstreet (Glee) dressed as Brad Pitt from the (now very satirized) Chanel No. 5 ad released a couple weeks ago.

Aside from costumes, Halloween is perfect for testing new brand extensions with limited availability. This year, Oreo released a Halloween special with candy corn filling:

Equally revolting, Pringles attempted to join the festive market by releasing three holiday flavours:

I’ve saved the best for last: Halloween commercials. Now, you’ve got your Halloween specials, where Cadbury Crème Eggs dominated this year with their new apocalyptic zombie spots, and prominent new green filling. Then you’ve got the regular chocolates and candies, where Snickers does the perfect spin on their “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign, with the Horseless Headsman. Finally, I think this year’s best Halloween spot is from Kmart, featuring a Guinness World Record being broken for most costume changes in 8 hours (150), completed by America’s Got Talent contestant, Monternez “Monty” Rezell. Brilliant way to showcase the 3,000 costumes they carry.