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October 30, 2006
Halloween Marketing Gets Scary Again
Chris Thilk's recent blog post got me thinking about marketing around Halloween. Thilk points out an excellent New York Times article that claims Madison Avenue is “Putting the Horror back in Halloween” after years of post-9/11 squeamishness.
The ABC Cable Network has a special named “13 Nights of Halloween” and XM Satellite Radio has devoted an entire website to its Halloween programming, for example.
Corpse brides, slashers, vampires and witches are back in vogue, as is high goth fashion at Bergdorf Goodman. The key is that Halloween celebrates our “irrational fears” - fears of enclosed spaces, darkness, clowns, bugs and monsters.
Certain brands are also getting into the act. If blood and gore isn’t your thing this year, why not dress up like a giant burrito and drop into any Chipotle restaurant for a free burrito? Or how about dressing up like the Hamburger Helper Hand?
The buzz for this year, according to the New York Times, is “season treason” - when marketers move up the Christmas assault to the day after Halloween rather than the day after Thanksgiving.
Technorati Tags: Halloween Marketing
Posted by William Lozito at October 30, 2006 1:27 PM
Posted to Branding
| Marketing
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