Halloween offers some great opportunities for brands to try something a bit different with their PR and marketing campaigns, but this year’s offering from Heinz did not go to plan.
The ketchup and baked bean giant launched its ‘It Ha-Ha-Has to be Heinz’ campaign as a homage to the new Joker: Folie à Deux film, released at the start of October. It showed people with tomato ketchup smeared around their mouths as a nod to The Joker’s distinctive approach to lipstick.
The three images on its digital, OOH and social ads, featured two white people and a black person. The campaign has been criticised for the similarity in the image of the black model/actor to the ‘black face’ and minstrel show caricatures that mocked black people and perpetuated racial stereotypes in the name of entertainment from the 19th century onwards. The company later told PR Week that it was ‘working to remove’ the ad.
Taking a pause to fully consider pictures and their implications and wider meanings is essential and input from a diverse range of people is crucial to understanding the impact certain images have.
With the appropriate care and consideration Halloween campaigns can get a brand talked about for the right reasons, however.
Last year Ikea took a cute approach with its ‘Monsters Not Included’ campaign. These ads, filmed in spooky lighting and with creepy music, showed that contrary to many childhood fears, there are no monsters under the bed, in the wardrobe or behind the curtain – Ikea simply doesn’t supply them.
The timing of the Ikea night light going on, and the unsettling sounds all go towards a memorable and gently humorous ad, that demonstrates that you will be perfectly safe in a bedroom furnished by the Swedish home interiors company.
One of the most imaginative, bold and engaging Halloween campaigns of recent years came from Burger King in 2018 with its ‘Scary Clown Night’ in which it offered a free Burger King Whopper to anyone coming to their outlets dressed as a clown on Halloween.
Ads featured the line ‘Come as a clown, eat like a king’ alongside suitably scary-looking clowns and customers got involved on social media with the #ScaryClownNight hashtag. And the clowns came and enjoyed their free burgers.
In one fell swoop Burger King engaged with customers, got talked about, and made a cheeky swipe at competitor McDonald’s famous clown mascot Ronald McDonald.
It’s a time of year when brands consider trying something different, creative and unexpected – but of course the same rules regarding care over content apply all year round.
