Top Three Favorite Halloween Ads

Spooky Scary Skeletons are coming once again. That's right, Halloween is here. Time to break out the candy, costumes, and scary films. This also means that TV stations start playing Halloween ads and much like Christmas, there are classic ads that while not in rotation anymore that should still be remembered. Here are three this year that I picked out that are memorable.

Dunkin' Donuts

When you think Halloween, you don't usually think Doughnuts. But Dunkin' Donuts manages to do it.

This ad is more about build up and payoff while promoting their Halloween themed treats. The build up starts as the scene of them making donuts and decorating them are cut to outside where monsters walking presumably to the local Dunkin' Donuts, spooky sounds and effects are heard throughout the ad. The payoff? The door opening showing kids in costumes asking for a dozen doughnuts, much to the relief of the bakers.

The setting of a dark, scary night helps build up the mood and payoff as well. This ad is playing off of the classic horror films. The building of suspense and the use of classic monsters gives it away, but it fits the mood of the ad. Spooky, not scary, has some decent build up and a cute payoff to it. Much like the theme it is in it of itself, a classic ad.

Pizza Hut

While more fitting for Halloween parties, pizza is a staple for such events. In the nineties, Pizza Hut was the popular pizza chain at the time. From 1993-1997 they had a Mr.Bill like promotion called Pizza Head in The Pizza Head Show. Like Mr. Bill, Pizza Head is put into a situation, a pizza cutter named Steve tricks him into something and the ad ends with him in the result.

This one involves Pizza Head wanting to celebrate the end of his Trick or Treating night with a trip to Pizza Hut. That is when the Narrator mentions there is one last place to go and leads him to a haunted house, complete with a mummy, a scary painting, and a vampire named Count Steve. Pizza Head wants to just go to Pizza Hut when Count Steve turns into a bat and takes him away.

This is of course a more child friendly Halloween ad as while it does have some classic scary stuff in it that you would see around this time of year, but it isn't really scary and plays it safe. Not a bad thing as it is still a classic nineties Halloween ad.

McDonald's

As a kid in the nineties, the McDonald's candy pales were a staple when they were released around Halloween. However that is for another year. This time this one will be short and sweet.

This ad starts with kids in many different costumes eating their Happy Meals at McDonald's. Kids are talking about costumes and one doesn't know so Ronald mentions there's "already a daddy" and spins the girl around to turn her into a mummy and she asks him what he's going to wear, Ronald doesn't know what to wear. Just then a vulture dressed as a clown suggests a clown.

This ad is just simple and it fits what the company was aiming for in terms of style and mood at the time, fun and child friendly. The fun child friendly mood that fits both the brand and season. Not much else to say outside of cute and kid friendly.

While Halloween is the start if the back to back holiday season, it shouldn't be swiped to the side to make way for the largest of the three. Halloween all and all has its own charm and should be treated as such before it gets showed in the corner like Thanksgiving does. So until next time, live life and live nostalgic.

Looking for more from ThatDudeintheHoodie?

READ 135553 TIMES

Timewarp: Blockbuster Video 1996

Ahhh, welcome back to the land of the living, Retro-Adventurer. I trust you slept well on the waterbed in the guest quarters of the T.M.R. (Ti...

The Lost Art of VHS Boxes

It was a different time.Before you could read a zillion reviews by everyone and their grandmother on any given movie online and then even download sai...

Slime Time!

The rise of gooey, drippy slime related toys from the 80’s to the early 90’s is an interesting phenomenon when you consider that fact that many ...

Halloween 1995 Victory and Embarrassment

The date: October 30th, 1995. The place: Ellen Myers Elementary School. I wake up at 7:15, eat my cereal, watch a Gilligan's Island rerun while getti...

A Haunting Experience

I can’t remember when I went to my first Knott’s Scary Farm Halloween Haunt. An educated guess would be 1996.The first time I went I wasn...

Timewarp: Toys R Us 1987

Greetings Retro-Adventurers, I am Dr. Timewarp (and no, I do not care to do the dance which bears my name again or…at all). I have recently obtain...

These Beverages Need to Join the ReSurgence

Nostalgia buffs are salivating at last week's news about Surge coming back. It took little more than an Internet campaign and Coca-Cola's desire to ma...

KIDS, Incorporated: Dreams Come True

I’ve always been a music fan, though the artistic merit of my early influences may be called into question when you realize that I was mostly list...

What to Watch on Halloween

It’s October 31st, the sun it beginning to go down and you want to put yourself in the mood to give the little ghosts and goblins that come to you...

MOST RECENT RETRORATING FEATURED OFFICIAL

Go to page: