26th Oct 2016 by Harriet Dalwood

10 Yetis Insight - Top 5 Spooky Halloween Stunts

It’s almost that time of year where kids will be roaming the streets; a sheet with two eye holes clumsily hacked out, draped haphazardly on their head. Young adults will be off to parties dressed as a sexy vampire nurse or something just as trivial and will end up drinking too much.

Yup, that’s right, I’m talking about Halloween, the spookiest of all the seasons. I might have made it sound like I hate the season but I actually think it’s great fun, especially for kids. To celebrate the most terrifying holiday of the year, let’s explore the top 5 Halloween PR stunts and campaigns of all time:

Airbnb

Halloween Night in Paris Catacombs was an amazing campaign Airbnb conjured up last year and was aimed at those who were looking for a change during the Halloween period.

The holiday rental site decides to offer fans the chance to win a night in one of the scariest places in the world – Paris’ catacombs which is thought to be home to six million souls.

The California-based company reportedly paid £262,000 to privatise the tunnels; a huge investment but such a cool idea.

The winner experienced a spooky bedtime story before bed and became “the only living person to ever wake up in the Paris catacombs.”

Pedro Arruda, Brazil, won the terrifying experience after he submitted an essay detailing why he was brave enough (a necessity for this!) to spend the night underground amongst the dead.

Burger King

Another great campaign from last year, which received tonnes of press, was Burger Kings Halloween special edition burger. The burger had an evil looking, pitch black, BBQ flavoured bun (because hell probably tastes like barbeque) and was coloured using a natural colourant.

This burger appeared on publications all over the place, mostly because it was reported that the delicious treat turned everyone’s poop green; but that’s pretty spooky in itself so I make that a win.

A Burger King in Queens, New York has also had a bit of fun this year with Halloween, by dressing the restaurant as its biggest competitor – Mcdonalds.

The fast-food venue covered itself with a sheet and had the word ‘McDonald’s’ spray painted on top. Below this read a sign: “Just kidding, we still flame frill our burgers.” Oh burn!

Tesco

Tesco’s ‘Spookimarket’ achieved great reach last year, with over 2 million people watching the hidden camera content on YouTube.

The supermarket decided to scare their unsuspecting shoppers with severed hands, butchers drenched in blood and trollies which move unprovoked. The hidden cameras caught the footage which was cut down into a 90-second video showing the most startled reactions.

It was also watching by millions over on their Facebook page. All in all a great success!


Rice Krispies

In 2013, Rice Krispies erected ScaresVendor machines at the Dublin Institute of Technology and CHQ shopping centre. Unsuspecting members of the public were enticed by the machines offering free seasonal Rice Krispie treats, ‘Totally Shocklatey’ and ‘Malloween’.

The public got more than they bargained for though, with scares being dished out alongside the delicious snacks.

The stunt reached the front page of Reddit and subsequently received coverage through other outlets.


Carrie

The final stunt I’m going to talk about is arguably the most successful with it having received over 66 million views on YouTube alone.

The stunt was created to advertise Kimberly Piece’s adaptation of Stephen King horror classic ‘Carrie’. Even though the film received terrible ratings, the film’s promotional campaign was a viral hit.

The elaborate promotional prank was named ‘Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise’ and showed unsuspecting customers at a New York City coffee shop witness a teenaged having a meltdown at somebody who accidentally spills her coffee and subsequently unleashes her ‘telekinetic powers’ on them.

Of course the teen and the coffee spiller are actors, but the customers are as real as you or I. Their reactions are priceless.

To wrap up this spooky blog post, I wanted to go through some of the poorest Halloween decisions; all of them being tasteless costumes. First we have the Kim Kardashian robbery costume which was sold in light of the reality TV star being held hostage in Paris last month. The costume comes with fake bling, a robe and gags. Classy.

Next, keeping it slightly in the family, was the Caitlyn Jenner costume which was released after Bruce Jenner announced he wanted to become a woman. The costume included a short dress with a banner going across the body, reading ‘Call me Caitlyn.’

Finally, just a few weeks ago, we saw a group of Nottingham students dress up as the Alton Tower Smiler victims. They dubbed themselves the ‘7 Legless’ throughout the night. They fashioned their outfit out of cardboard to look like they were on a rollercoaster and used foam noodles to make seat harnesses. Some of the students even tied their jeans at the knee, to ‘give the impression that they were amputees’.

If you are going to dress up this year and go out, try not to offend thousands while you do it!

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