The top 20 Halloween prints…

As we approach that time of year when pumpkin lanterns adorn front porches, witches hats are an acceptable form of dress, and cries of ‘trick or treat’ fill the air, FESPA takes a look at some of the best printed adverts that accompany the Halloween season.

Print companies around the world are well aware with work that accompanies the major holidays and events such as Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s Day.

And while Christmas may be one of the main topics on the agenda for printing companies at this time of year, Halloween is another opportunity for those in the print sector to get inventive and come up with some seasonal adverts.

Here, we look at some of the best examples of printed adverts for the spooky, yet colourful and creative, Halloween season.

1. Surviving a zombie apocalypse with camping gear

Designer: Unknown

Description: Outdoor clothing and gear retailer REI took the opportunity to show how its products can not only prove useful for leisurely activities like camping, but also for surviving a zombie apocalypse…

Picture: Courtesy of REI

2. Petrified pasta from Heinz 

Designer: Unknown

Description: Heinz used print advertising to promote a limited edition range of products for Halloween. The labels, of course, were also printed.

Picture: Courtesy of Heinz

3. Smelling good in the face of fear

Designer: BBH London

Description: Utilising the shape of deodorant cans, Lynx and the BBH London agency were able to re-create the famous mash from horror film ‘Scream’.

Picture: Courtesy of Lynx

4. A Tasty treat from Toblerone 

Designer: Unknown

Description: Toblerone was able to imitate the scary faces carved into pumpkins each Halloween by using the famous triangle shape of its chocolate on an orange background. Coincidentally, Toblerones can be found in the goodie bags of many trick or treaters…

Picture: Courtesy of Toblerone  

5. Frightfully fresh breath with Wrigley’s

Designer: Unknown

Description: Paying tribute to print adverts of the past. Wrigley’s has been using Halloween and printed adverts to promote its products for years, with this just on example of its “Bewitching” abilities…

Picture: Courtesy of Wrigley’s  

6. Paying the price of scarily inaccurate environment claims

Designer: Greenpeace UK

Description: Last year, Greenpeace UK took a tongue-in-cheek swipe at VW after the company was criticised for misinforming customers over the sustainable features of it vehicles. The advert appeared in the Independent and Guardian newspapers.

Picture: Courtesy of Greenpeace UK

7. A Mini adventure at Halloween

Designer: Mini

Description: Mini is another company that regularly publishes Halloweens ads, and this is just one example in a series of print advertisements.

Picture: Courtesy of Mini

8. Devilish delight from Mars 

Designer: Mars

Description: Simple yet effective; Mars got in touch with its dark side when it came up with this devilish advert for Halloween.

Picture: Courtesy of Mars

9. Vampires are lovin’ it

Designer: McDonalds

Description: McDonalds is another company that utilises the shape and colour of its products to create a spooky advert. Here, the fast food giant has transformed its French fries and box into a set of fangs, complete with ketchup-blood.

Picture: Courtesy of McDonalds

10. Hauntingly good from Heineken

Designer: Heineken

Description: Heineken likes to get creative around this time of year and enlisted the help of a certain Freddie Krueger to produce this ad.

Picture: Courtesy of Heineken 

11. Baking up a Halloween treat with Hovis 

Designer: Hovis

Description: Hovis picked up on the link between the ‘Seven Sins’ theme and its own ‘seven seeds’ bread t create this ad, focusing on seasonal pumpkin seeds in particular…

Picture: Courtesy of Hovis

12. Exceedingly scary from My Kipling  

Designer: Mr Kipling

Description: An exceedingly good example of a Halloween advert here from Mr Kipling, which transformed its usually-innocent cherry bakewell tarts into a scary set of eyes!

Picture: Courtesy of Mr Kipling

13. Halloween banter from soft drink rivals

Designer: Pepsi / Coca-Cola  

Description: Nothing like a bit of banter at Halloween! Pepsi’s tongue-in-cheek stab at its famous rival backfired when Coca-Cola responded with a similar ad of its own!

Picture: Courtesy of Pepsi 

14. Oreo takes the biscuit 

Designer: Oreo

Description: Is it too early for milk and cookies at Halloween? Oreo doesn’t seem to think so with this inventive ad.

Picture: Courtesy of Oreo

15. Joker refreshes a classic approach

Designer: Joker (Change, France)

Description: Simple, yet effective, seems to the approach of many brands at this time of year, with Joker Orange Juice following suit with this creation.

Picture: Courtesy of Joker/Change (France)

16. Ford tips its hat to creativity 

Designer: Ford

Description: Another example of simple and effective comes from Ford, which urged parents to keep their children safe at Halloween. The company took a standard parking cone and turned it into the shape of a witch’s hat, but at the same time highlighting road safety.

Picture: Courtesy of Ford

17. Ice cream or I scream? 

Designer: Sensodyne

Description: Event toothpaste brands can get on the act. Sensodyne used this scary-looking ice cream to encourage customers not to “fear the cold”.

Picture: Courtesy of Sensodyne

18. Kia’s Halloween driving force

Designer: Kia

Description: Why not combine a new product launch with Halloween? Kia did just this with its cee’d GT-Line, using a pumpkin with headlights to encourage drivers to book a test drive.

Picture: Courtesy of Kia

19. Dental problems – nothing to smile about 

Designer: Westcoast Dental Clinic

Description: How about this for a scary, but effective, advert?! Westcoast Dental Clinic transformed a tooth into the shape of a skull to show the dangers of poor dental care.

Picture: Courtesy of Westcoast Dental Clinic 

20. There’s nothing scary about eating your vegetables

Designer: Iglo

Description: Frozen foods company Iglo is another brand to have used its own products to form Halloween images, creatively making scary faces on vegetables. 

Picture: Courtesy of Iglo