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Halloween 2017: who’s getting spooky and strange this year

Energy company Mobil New Zealand’s campaign reminded Kiwis to pick up lollies for trick-or-treaters from their local pit stop rather than relying on what’s left in the cupboard.

Using the tagline of ‘Don’t forget Halloween’ it shared pictures of kids dressed up as a witch, Dracula and a scientist with unsavoury ‘treats’ such as a fish, pickled onions, and a cauliflower.

To help parents with little trick-or-treaters AMI Insurance have offered some Halloween tips; including getting amongst the fun and dressing up when going along, setting rules for older kids and encouraging a ‘competition’ of who can take the longest to eat all their collected candy to avoid a sugar rush. 

In order to get their chocolate candy sufficiently ‘pre-haunted’ by Halloween, M&M’s New Zealand put boxes and boxes of candy into the historic property Alberton House in Auckland’s Mt Albert for 13 days. A live stream of the event has since been sharing the spooky activity, including moving objects and flickering lights.

While many brands have been busy injecting Halloween fun into their brands, Cadbury and Countdown decided to team up and get to the bottom of how Kiwis are celebrating Halloween and what our biggest fears are.

Snakes, public speaking and parallel parking in front of an audience were revealed as the top three fears, followed by house prices, spiders and having a credit card declined.

The survey of more than 1,000 participants also showed Halloween is growing in popularity in New Zealand, with 61 percent celebrating the spooky holiday.

“We found that more than 35 percent said Halloween is all about trick-or-treating, and dressing up in scary costumes is a very close second,” said Cadbury New Zealand country manager, James Kane.

“We wanted to take a light-hearted look at Halloween’s scarier side, so together with Countdown we asked people to share some of the things that scare them most.”

Kane says some of the funniest responses were from people who were a little disappointed with their Halloween fare.

“Vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and peas made the worst trick-or-treat gift list along with savoury items like tinned tuna and baked beans. One extremely disappointed trick-or-treater received an uninflated balloon, and another found the unshelled walnuts they received hard to swallow.”

To back up the survey results, Countdown analysed its sales data and discovered that sales of Halloween merchandise last year increased more than 273 percent from Halloween 2015, and chocolate sales also jumped more than 14 percent.

Dole New Zealand made Jack O’ Lanterns with its with Dole Tropical Gold Pineapple, a humourous take on the traditional pumpkin. 

International efforts

Overseas, Google’s daily doodle clicked through to a cute short film called Jinx’s Night Out about a little ghost who just wants to go trickle-treating with some friends. He tries on a variety of costumes – from a princess to a mummy – until he finds the perfect fit. 

Budget British supermarket chain ASDA brings humour to Halloween with the help of Saatchi & Saatchi London, rolling out a spot in which a family gets possessed by the 80’s Cameo song ‘Word Up’.

Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida redecorated for a hauntingly good time. 

And Zulu Alpha Kilo, a Canadian agency, used a Halloween theme to promote Harley-Davidson Genuine Parts and Merchandise. It honours Harley’s iconic skull logo with a poster and social post showing a skull made up of every part of the legendary Sportster bike, Forty-Eight.

If you saw any other stand-out Halloween campaigns, please share them in the comments below.

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