The Best of Halloween Marketing; Apple’s OOH AirPod Ads: Thursday’s First Things First

The Best of Halloween

In case you didn’t notice the 14 people dressed as Lil Nas X in “Old Town Road” during your commute, today is in fact Halloween (which is this newsletter writer’s favorite holiday). Marketers come up with all kinds of brilliant ideas for Halloween-themed ads and activations, so we’re going run down a few of our favorites from the past few years this morning.

• Burger King typically nails its Halloween stunt (this year’s was a little odd), but the fast-food brand nailed its stunts the last three years. In 2018, it created a Whopper that gives you nightmares. The two previous years, the King trolled its top competitor by dressing a restaurant up as the ghost of McDonald’s and then gave away free Whoppers to anyone dressed as a clown.
• Budweiser found people who were arrested on Halloween and remained in costume for their mugshots as a reminder to party responsibly. Bud also celebrated its little-known link to John Carpenter.
• One of the best Halloween stunts came last year from Reese’s, which created vending machines at which all kids exchange all their trash candy for Reese’s Cups.
• Svedka Vodka used retargeted ads to its advantage by creating creepy Halloween ads that follow you around the internet.
• There’s an ongoing Addams Family advertising blitz, and the latest stunt is from Booking.com, which recreated the Addams Family house in Brooklyn.

Related: Check out this infographic on America’s favorite Halloween candy by state.

Exclusive: How Apple Used Dramatic Outdoor Ads for the Surprise Reveal of AirPods Pro

Apple and creative agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab revealed the AirPods Pro through a two-phase outdoor campaign. First, giant and unbranded images of dancers appeared in major global markets. After the AirPods Pro were announced, the images—some more than 40 feet in height—were updated to include the new devices in the dancers’ ears.

Read more: Creativity editor David Griner got the inside scoop on how Apple and TBWA\Media Arts Lab conceived and executed the campaign.

Streaming Chaos Is About to Begin

There’s been a flood of streaming news over the last couple weeks as Apple TV+ debuts tomorrow and Disney+ is coming in about two weeks. So here’s our latest coverage about the services as they sprint to scale up:

• HBO revealed many details about HBO Max on Tuesday, including that there’s a Game of Thrones prequel on the way. TV editor Jason Lynch broke down what he likes and doesn’t like about HBO Max.
• Netflix hinted it would let users watch content at a higher playback speed, but it pulled the plug on that after consumer backlash.
• NBC isn’t revealing many details about Peacock, which debuts next year.
• Hulu has a new chief creative, plucking Scott Donaton away from Digitas.
• RIP, Playstation Vue Live TV. You didn’t make it long enough to actually do battle with all the new services.

Best the Rest: Today’s Top News and Insights

• Twitter Will No Longer Accept Political Ads, Says CEO
• Bobby Pearce Is Wonderful Agency’s New Creative Lead
• Jo Ann Ross Will Lead Ad Sales at ViacomCBS

Creativity Editor David Griner’s Favorite Halloween Ad: Mars’ “Bite Size Horror” Campaign

As a genre, horror is something the ad industry traditionally only waded into through the lens of satire and parody. You might get a spooky setup, but the payoff was always pretty upbeat and salesy.

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