RetroDaze

What the
heck is a
yuletide?

OFFICIAL

Top 5 TV Dads of the 80's

RETRORATING: 20

Pizza Hut Promotions

OFFICIAL

A Talk With Adam F. Goldberg

Don't mess
with the bull.
JOIN!!!

3 COMMENTS

RETRORATING: 7

FAVORITED 1 TIMES

Top Three Favorite Halloween Ads

By: ThatDudeintheHoodie

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 92858 TIMES

ThatDudeintheHoodie Posted on Sep 27, 2019 at 01:11 AM

Vaperman, it was hard, but it gives me more to work with next time I do ads for next time.

Vaporman87 Posted on Sep 27, 2019 at 12:07 AM

All three of these are perfect choices, but I don't know how you could ever narrow the many amazing Halloween ads down to three. There are just far too many good ones for me to ever pick three.

Benjanime Posted on Sep 26, 2019 at 11:56 PM

there was nothing quite like roaming around door to door with those mcdonald's halloween treat carrying buckets, loved the face designs on 'em.

Confessions: The Snack Burglar

I’ve written in the past about my experiences as a former fat kid in the 80’s and early 90’s. In that article I talked about the minefield of ...

3 Essential 80s Home Decor Items

Though we often categorize a decade based on its popular music or television shows, another way to help take us back to days long past is through the ...

What I Miss From Childhood

Being an adult sucks sometimes. Watching things from the past slowly going away makes me sad. There are many characters from restaur...

Retro Rubber Masks

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, well this ad from a 1985 issue of Fantastic Films magazine has gotta be good for at least 1,500. What's ...

Cursive Curse

When I was in third grade my handwriting was very bad. Our teacher used to have the class watch a show called “Cursive Handwriting”. This sh...

MOST RECENT RETRORATING FEATURED OFFICIAL

Go to page: