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Halloween-errific

10 Very Cool Old Halloween Adverts

So I was having a look through Google the other day and I came across some great old Halloween adverts, used for all sorts of products that you wouldn’t usually associate with Halloween.

It’s the usual marketing stuff that you usually see for all those household brands that you use frequently, except of course these ads were put out during the Halloween period with the intention of getting people to buy more of their stuff because, well, it was Halloween!

The adverts themselves are a mix of beautiful, cool, quaint and crazy. So in no particular order, here are ten of my favourites.

10 Very Cool Old Halloween Adverts

You can check out the Halloween ads in their full sized glory in the gallery below.

Blatz Beer

There’s something about Halloween that makes you blatz-beer-halloween-adfeel all warm inside. So warm in fact that you may well feel like cooling down with a beer.
This old Blatz beer ad shows just how great a carved pumpkin suits a cool brewsky, just poured into a glass and looking all foamy… Anyone else thirsty right now?

In the days before they used sex to sell beer, they evidently used pumpkins…

Oh and by the way people. Beer and knives don’t mix.

Coca-Cola

coke coca cola halloween“Things Go Better with Coke” and by that of course, we mean the famous dark fizzy drink that is hugely successful across the world.
For the members of the public that were too young, not into alcohol or maybe didn’t want to get drunk whilst using sharp tools to carve a pumpkin there was of course Coke as an option.
Although too much of it could make you jittery and also more likely to inflict a personal injury during the carving.

It’s almost like a caffeine fuelled totem of Halloween happiness.

Kellogs

I could be mistaken, kellogs halloweenbut when I think of Halloween treats, boxes of cereal have got to be waaay down the list of favourites.
In fact, if someone did offer me some I would be confused and assume that they are either confused themselves or have very little in their house to offer trick or treaters. Like literally that or a bar or soap.
The kids in this ad for Kellogs look happy enough though. Even though they don’t have bowls, spoons or milk. Perhaps they’ll save this treat for the morning after?
Oh, and what’s with the kid in the middle’s Halloween costume? Dirty stock broker?

Old Gold

Here’s one pumpkin that doesn’t old-gold-halloweenlook happy about Halloween. And it’s not because someone is irritatingly blowing cigarette smoke either. This old advert for the Old Gold brand of cigarettes is basically telling us that ‘people telling us that cigarettes are unhealthy are ruining Halloween’.
Yep, Old Gold didn’t want to scare people with ‘medical claims’. You know, those crazy medical claims about cigarettes being really bad for you that ended up being, well, very true.

As an ad, it is refreshingly different in that the others featured here all show how their product can enhance your enjoyment of All Hallows Eve, whereas Old Gold are just angry at the doctors. Even at Halloween. Wonder if they did a similar ad with Santa’s face for Christmas.

Kool-Aid

Kool-Aid was huge in the US in the eighties kool-aid halloween ad(and may still be to this day, I haven’t had any in a long while). The gimmick that made it so appealing was that the flavour came in a sachet and you made the drink yourself using this powder, some water and a whole lot of sugar.
It was no wonder then that it was a big hit with Halloweeners, fusing sugary highs with the experience of making it – which was kind of like conducting a very easy evil experiment or mixing a mysterious potion.

But the best thing about this advert isn’t that it’s Kool-Aid, and it’s not even that the drink looks a bit like a jack-o-lantern. Instead it’s the fact that it looks like there’s a giant jug being held by a huge hand that is about to crush some poor trick-or-treaters that are powerless to resist the sweet, sweet taste.

Pepsi

Not to be outdone by their main competitor, pepsiCoke (mentioned earlier) Pepsi were keen to get in on festive advertisments during Halloween.
This great vintage ad shows a woman in a cat costume being asked for a dance because, well she chose Pepsi. And how did Pepsi help that to happen? Well, it made her slimmer and in turn more attractive to the opposite sex.
So their message was clear ‘if you’re having trouble finding love, drink Pepsi and get slim’.

Nowadays, soft drinks are often avoided by people wanting to be healthier. And this is a good thing. Particularly when you notice how creepy the hand is enticing her away from the table. Killer Clown?
Probably.

Cracker Jack

Wouldn’t you know it? cracker jack halloween advertAnother person trying to offload their cereal onto kids!
Okay, it’s not really cereal. It’s actually molasses-flavored candy-coated popcorn and peanuts and is probably very nice in the real world.
But this ad just doesn’t do such a snack justice, with it looking far more like granola, the cereal that is becoming very popular with the health conscious.

The line on the bottom sounds somewhat familiar ‘The more you eat, the more you want’, making you wonder if Cracker Jack are aware that Pringles pretty much lifted their catchphrase.

Wrigleys Gum

Another treat that I wouldn’t personally Wrigleys Halloween gumbe keen on for Halloween is mint chewing gum. I mean, who wants to chew on gum when there are so many other things to be eating, things that you can actually swallow and that don’t lose their flavour after about 5 minutes, becoming flavourless and pointless.

That ‘bewitching mint leaf flavour’, has only one vaguely magical thing about it… That it fast disappears without a trace.
Gum hate aside though, the advert itself is bright and attractive, and much like a classic work of art in a gallery it leaves you with questions. Like ‘is the kid on the left surprised at their reflection or by the packet of Wrigleys that they’re being threatened with?’ We’ll probably never know.

Budweiser

Beer – Check, Cheese – Check, Budweiser HalloweenWeird Halloween decoration that looks like a carved tomato – Check.
What more can you ask for at a Halloween party than this impressive spread?

The link between Halloween and beer is cemented further in this old Budweiser ad that on the surface seems innocent enough. However, veiwed from a different angle, the message could be construed as being decidedly anti-alcohol.
It’s obvious that the woman pictured has had far too much to drink. She’s making advances on a carved tomato after all.
And that look in her eye suggests more than hunger. She’s looking for a GSOH and commitment.
Drink responsibly.

Crest

The one thing that I hope you all do before crest toothpaste halloweenyou bed down at the end of your Halloween fun is brush those teeth.
Because is you don’t care about dental hygene, then your treat eating enjoyment could be spoiled, leaving you in pain and owing lots of money to your dentist.

Mr Pumpkin agrees, which is why he appeared on this advert for Crest toothpaste. And although he is just a carved fruit, he knows what he’s talking about. Just look at those teeth. He only has four left!

Contrasting the rather unimaginitive image is the blocks of text at the bottom. Sadly this ad is far too wordy and is unlikely to have had much of an influence over sugar crazed kids in days gone by.

Word of advice though, don’t let the headline fool you. Crest is not a suitable Halloween treat. Even cereal would be a better idea.

Halloween Adverts Gallery – click for large images

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About The Author

Part man, part pumpkin, Pumpkinhead was the result of a crazy experiment that went wrong. When Halloweenerrific's mad professor, Doctor Frankenblot combined two reactive elements during a product review he was transformed forever into a fusion of human and squash.

2 Comments

  1. ClownLover13 September 27, 2014 at 3:15 pm

    Cigarettes are not as bad for you as the media claims. My mother is 83 and smoked cigs most of her life (and she still does). She has no heart disease or cancer, only a mild case of copd. She is healthier than most 83 year olds. So, the truth is, it depends on the individual and if cancer or heart disease runs in the family.
    The moral of the story, don’t believe everything you watch on TV 🙂

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