It must have felt like a long day in the office of McDonald’s social media team yesterday as Twitter exploded with anger at its poorly received 2022 Halloween campaign.
Many Tweeters suggested that the fast food giant’s #TrickorEat campaign was poorly judged at a time when the #HeatorEat hashtag is a real thing, but Halloween doesn’t have to be a nightmare for brands.
As some light relief for Maccy D’s marketing team, and our readers alike, here are five of our favourite campaigns that didn’t go down like a lead balloon at Halloween over the last decade.
LG, So Real it’s Scary, 2012
An oldie but a goody from LG. The electronics giant went to a lot of trouble for the October 2012 launch of its latest IPS monitors (which have probably not aged as well as the campaign given the pace of technology.)
LG’s engineers fitted out a lift floor with the monitors, as well as hidden speakers which made the noise of the creaking floor collapsing as the lift floor appeared to give way under passengers feet, leaving them staring into a gaping abyss below.
The ad had over 10 million views in just one week, and this was back in 2012, remember. It was picked up by TV shows and newspapers all over the world, and LG reported a 20 per cent jump in market share across key markets on the back of it.