Because things get real, real fast.

By: Bella Bonifazi

It’s officially Halloween! Costumes are being worn, pumpkins are being carved, and every brand’s marketing team is sitting back, watching anxiously to see if their spooky ads were a trick or a treat. So grab your Halloween candy and keep reading for this year’s scary good ad campaigns!

The Ordinary

The Ordinary took a unique spin on their Halloween marketing by releasing an ad that didn’t show a single one of their products. This dystopian-toned ad featured rows of people in a large white room, each one performing a different kind of “beauty torture” on themselves to chase perfection. Every act represents a different skincare buzzword like “poreless” or “wrinkle erasing”, all of which The Ordinary showcased on The Periodic Fables. This ad sent the message that less is more, and we’ve all been told lies when it comes to skincare. It’s a bold move that fits perfectly with The Ordinary’s simple, no-nonsense approach to skincare, which makes viewers trust them even more.

Hatch for Sleep

This horror movie trailer parody, Goodnight, Phone, had viewers in an uproar for showing demonic-like images of people being haunted by their phones. This ad shows people imagining “phantom TikTokers”, pulling a bloody charging cord out of their mouth, and a very sleep-deprived version of themselves crawling over them as they try to sleep. Hatch’s solution: PUT THE PHONE DOWN AND GO TO SLEEP. Hatch for Sleep wants their consumers not to let doomscrolling haunt them into their sleeping hours by using their all-in-one alarm clock that helps minimize phone use in the bedroom. What do you think? Demonic or Daring?

Maybelline

Maybelline takes a more traditionally spooky approach with its Halloween promotion. The slogan “you may not survive, but your makeup will,” takes us into scenes of floating eyeliner because of a possessed doll, a girl with perfect foundation being attacked by vines, and a slasher targeting a girl wearing “super stay lipstick”. Though scared to tears, backed into a corner, and stabbed in the gut, these leading ladies are sure to point out how their makeup hasn’t run and still looks perfect. Maybelline’s short clips, “Eyes that Haunt,” “Face your Fears,” and “Kiss of Death,” are fun, to the point, and totally encapsulate the Halloween vibe.

Skittles

Of course, it wouldn’t be Halloween without candy! Skittles really hit the mark this year, finding a way to appeal to both younger and older audiences. This 90s-themed sitcom “airs” every other night at 7 pm, exclusively on TikTok. This style of ‘appointment  TV’ brings nostalgia for older audiences while only being in 6-second clips, which appeals to today’s chronically online with ever-shortening attention spans. Check out Skittles’ website to meet all the characters and go watch Season 1 of Ghost Roommate on Skittles’ TikTok account to see what it’s like living with the undead.

MINI

Wrapping up our Halloween ads, MINI’s Halloween Trick is a classic take on poking fun at your rivals. We loved it with Pepsi’s “scary” Coke costume and Coke flipping it back, saying, “everyone wants to be a hero.” Now we’re seeing a new take on this with MINI dressing as a Google-backed self-driving vehicle, the Waymo. In a world moving towards self-driving cars, it’s fun to see how car companies are responding. This ad campaign takes it one step further because this disguised MINI will actually be driving around the streets of LA on Halloween night in what MINI deems “the scariest costume ever”.