Quick Summary
- The most memorable Halloween campaigns blend creativity, culture, and clever storytelling to stand out.
- Learn what makes a powerful Halloween ad work and how smart strategy turns creativity into results.
- These strategies translate to all seasonal campaigns, just dressed up differently.
Every October, brands unleash their most creative instincts. Some win with costumes, others with clever stunts or unexpected collabs.
The best Halloween campaigns sell products while capturing attention, sparking conversation, and inviting participation. We’ve rounded up 10 legendary Halloween ad campaigns, each showing how to own the season.
1. Burger King: “Scary Clown Night”
Burger King’s “Scary Clown Night” turned Halloween into a global stage for brand rivalry. Anyone could get a free Whopper, but there was a catch: you had to dress as a clown.
The stunt
The bold idea poked fun at McDonald’s famous mascot while tapping into the year’s hottest cultural trend: the release of It, which had everyone talking about terrifying clowns.
Stores from London to Madrid filled with “clowns” clutching Whoppers instead of balloons. The campaign’s accompanying video, which shows a lone biker being followed by a clown mob toward Burger King, became a Halloween classic in its own right.
The stunt delivered staggering results: more than 110,000 participants across 35 countries, 2.1 billion earned impressions, and an estimated $22.4 million in media value.
The takeaway
Humor, competition, and timing can be a marketer’s triple threat. More than just a giveaway, it was a global event that asked fans to join the fun and literally wear the joke.
2. Heinz: “Tomato Blood”
Heinz used Halloween to turn ketchup into costume fuel. “Tomato Blood” proved that sometimes the best idea is the most obvious one. By renaming ketchup for Halloween and turning it into a costume prop, Heinz transformed a pantry staple into a seasonal must-have.
The stunt
The brand launched a full Halloween experience, including costume kits and a vampire influencer named Toby, a “vegetarian vampire” who traded human victims for tomato blood.
Limited-edition ketchup appeared in stores and pop-ups. The bottles featured black labels, spooky typography, and playful copy.
The “Tomato Blood” campaign generated millions of impressions across social media. The campaign extended beyond Halloween, becoming a pop-culture reference point for clever seasonal rebrands.
The takeaway
Relevance often comes from leaning into what the product already is and presenting it in a new light. Heinz gave fans something tangible to use at their Halloween parties and an irresistible reason to post about it online.
3. Mars (Skittles/Snickers): “Bite-Size Horror”
Most brands treat Halloween as an excuse for themed packaging or social media contests. Mars, the company behind Skittles and Snickers, took a different route.
Instead of running traditional ads, it created “Bite-Size Horror,” a series of two-minute, Hollywood-quality horror shorts that blurred the line between entertainment and advertising.
The stunt
Rather than interrupting the horror marathons people were already watching, the brand became part of the experience.
Each film was tied to a candy brand but not in a forced way. The Snickers short, for instance, centered on the hunter becoming the hunted, while the Skittles entry used dark scenery, a far cry from its color-rich branding. The candy itself appeared only subtly, allowing the story to drive the tension.
The shift paid off. The shorts earned millions of organic views and strong engagement metrics across social platforms.
The takeaway
Mars’ “Bite-Size Horror” pushed the limits of traditional advertising by becoming the entertainment itself. Instead of selling candy, it sold feelings.
The lesson is to trade interruption for integration: when your brand becomes part of the entertainment, engagement follows naturally.
4. Reese’s × Nextdoor: “Treat Map”
Every brand wants to “own” Halloween, but Reese’s did something better: it made Halloween useful. In partnership with the neighborhood app Nextdoor, the candy giant launched an interactive Treat Map, a digital guide that showed families which homes were handing out candy in their area.
The stunt
Reese’s put utility before promotion, embedding itself in a core Halloween behavior. Instead of pushing another ad about chocolate and peanut butter, Reese’s created a tool that actually made the night better for parents and kids.
The Treat Map rolled out across the U.S. and quickly became a Halloween staple on social media feeds. Families loved marking their houses, swapping candy tips, and sharing screenshots of their neighborhoods lighting up in orange dots.
It was candy meets community, a monster mash-up of digital convenience and old-fashioned trick-or-treat spirit.
The takeaway
Reese’s proved that the best Halloween marketing rides the holiday while improving it. The Treat Map worked because it gave people something they genuinely needed, wrapped in a brand they already loved.
It was the kind of visibility money can’t buy: organic, neighbor-to-neighbor, and powered by genuine excitement.
5. Liquid Death × Martha Stewart: Severed Hand Candle
Liquid Death, the rebellious canned-water brand, teamed up with America’s queen of refinement, Martha Stewart, to launch a limited-edition Severed Hand Candle: a wax hand clutching a can of Liquid Death.
It was elegant. It was grotesque. It was perfect.
The stunt
Liquid Death’s Halloween collaboration with Martha Stewart showed how extremes attract attention. Their luxury candle was equal parts elegant and absurd, generating viral conversation and media buzz.
The video ad featured Stewart calmly crafting the gruesome candles in her signature “DIY tutorial” style, casually talking about elegance and dismemberment in the same breath. It was the perfect collision of class and chaos.
The partnership made no logical sense, which was exactly why it worked. Liquid Death had built its entire image on parodying heavy-metal intensity, while Martha Stewart embodied calm, curated luxury. Together, they created a product that stopped people mid-scroll. The candle quickly sold out, and the internet did what it does best: turned shock into virality.
The takeaway
Merging two worlds that don’t belong together is a powerful storytelling tool. When you combine unexpected partners and tones, you create cultural contrast that audiences can’t ignore.
6. LG: “So Real It’s Scary”
Some tech ads talk about realism. LG decided to show it by scaring people half to death.
The prank worked because it was harmless, hilarious, and brutally effective at demonstrating the product’s core promise: lifelike display quality.
The stunt
LG’s “So Real It’s Scary” prank staged a fake elevator floor collapse using its hyper-realistic monitors. Hidden cameras captured every scream, jump, and panicked clutch for the handrail. It turned product performance into the punchline.
The setup made it sticky. Humor came from the contrast between a quiet, everyday situation and sudden chaos, the kind of creative twist audiences crave on social media.
The takeaway
LG didn’t need a tagline or a celebrity cameo. It built a story people felt, and filmed it. “So Real It’s Scary” is a reminder that a clever demonstration beats a polished sales pitch every time.
7. Netflix: “Netflix & Chills”
Netflix reimagined a phrase already synonymous with streaming culture and turned it into a seasonal event: “Netflix & Chills.” It branded the behavior, not just the content, and cemented itself as a go-to Halloween destination for horror lovers.
The stunt
Instead of pushing one new release, Netflix bundled all its horror content under a single, cheeky headline that everyone instantly understood. It flipped the pop-culture staple “Netflix & Chill” into a Halloween catchphrase.
The brand leaned hard into the fun, creating custom artwork, seasonal landing pages, and social posts featuring characters from its scariest hits, like Stranger Things, The Haunting of Hill House, Bird Box, and dozens more.
Fans started using it as a hashtag to share their own movie marathons and recommendations, turning an ad line into an internet habit.
The takeaway
Netflix didn’t need a new show or a new product. It just reframed what people were already doing.
That’s the magic of great seasonal marketing: When your audience is in a certain mood, give that mood a name and own it.
8. Skittles: “Rotten Zombie Roulette”
In this ad, Skittles’ emphasized the trick in “trick-or-treat.” It hid one revolting flavor among the regular ones to turn snacking into a game that fueled a wave of hilarious user-generated videos.
The stunt
Skittles has always leaned into weird. Its flavors are bright, its ads are bizarre, and its Taste the Rainbow tagline begs for Halloween mischief. That’s why the Rotten Zombie twist was a perfect fit.
Each limited edition bag looked normal, but hidden among the fruity flavors were Skittles that tasted like decay: a stomach-turning surprise somewhere between moldy socks and garlic. The concept was part prank, part game that invites players to eat at their own risk.
#RottenZombieChallenge videos started popping up on TikTok and YouTube, with brave snackers documenting their reactions in real time. It was user-generated content gold: authentic, hilarious, and just gross enough to go viral.
The product was so memorable that fans begged Skittles to bring it back the following Halloween. It’s proof that when you make people feel something (even disgust), they remember you.
The takeaway
Interactivity doesn’t have to rely on technology; it can live inside the product itself. Skittles turned its candy into a game and the audience into the ad. The genius of “Rotten Zombie Roulette” was the participation. Halloween is built on anticipation, surprise, and laughter, and this campaign nailed all three.
9. Airbnb: “Night in the Catacombs”
Some Halloween promotions hand out candy. Airbnb handed out nightmares, in the best way possible. The brand offered two lucky winners the chance to spend a night in the Paris Catacombs among the remains of more than six million people. It was part contest, part stunt, and entirely on brand for a company built on “unique experiences.”
The stunt
The listing mirrored any other Airbnb post: cozy details, photos, and a host greeting that cheerfully invited guests to “rest in peace.” The campaign hit just the right balance of spooky and playful. Fans around the world entered for a chance to descend into the dark, and the story spread fast across social media and major news outlets.
The contest perfectly captured Airbnb’s mission to make travel memorable. The brand leaned into emotional storytelling, with curiosity, courage, and just enough fear to make it thrilling.
The “Night in the Catacombs” contest also sparked a long-running tradition: Airbnb now creates similar holiday experiences each year, from Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania to the Scream house in California.
The takeaway
Airbnb’s Halloween promo became the sleepover no one could resist. You don’t need to invent Halloween relevance when your brand already thrives on adventure. Bold ideas paired with real-world exclusivity can earn attention money can’t buy.
10. IKEA: “Monsters Not Included”
Not every brand gets an easy invitation to Halloween. IKEA sells couches and lamps, not candy or costumes. But that didn’t stop the retailer from pulling off one of the most charming Halloween campaigns in recent memory.
In “Monsters Not Included,” IKEA used light, shadow, and imagination to prove that its furniture could banish more than bad décor.
The stunt
The “Monsters Not Included” campaign highlighted popular IKEA pieces, like beds and wardrobes, where “monsters” are likely to hide. A flick of a light showed there were no monsters, offering a new perspective on a common childhood fear.
There were no big budgets, celebrity cameos, or jump scares. Just clever lighting, sound design, and a simple truth: Even ordinary objects can feel magical when the lights go out.
The takeaway
Even brands far from Halloween’s usual orbit can tap into the season through creativity, empathy, and tone. If you can align your brand with the feeling behind the holiday, you’re already part of the celebration.
Marketer Takeaways
Halloween is the one holiday where brands can get away with being bold, bizarre, and a little bit twisted. Across these ten campaigns, a few themes stand out.
- Take advantage of timing. Launch your idea when the world is already talking; it’s easier to join a conversation than start one.
- Participation beats promotion. The best campaigns invite people to play along.
- Practicality wins. Flashy ideas grab attention, but the ones that solve a real problem stick around.
- Emotion drives memory. Fear, joy, laughter, whatever it is, make people feel something they’ll talk about later.
- Turn products into experiences. When your audience can taste, touch, or test your idea, it moves from ad to event.
- Brand fit matters. A great Halloween idea still needs to feel like you, even if it’s dressed in fake blood.
Media Shower’s AI marketing platform is so good, it’s scary. Click here for a free trial.
