Halloween Ads of Yesteryear

With All Hallow's Eve imminent, here's a small selection of vintage Halloween-themed print ads that I've come across.

Hunt's Catsup, "Happy Halloween", 1967.

Hunt's Catsup puts a tomato twist on the traditional Halloween pumpkin.

Budweiser, 1953.

Budweiser, 1960.

A couple of kitsch beer ads for Budweiser in theme.

Michelob, "If Michelob were a ghost...", 1970.

Michelob beer makes an attempt to be spooky.

Griffin Microsheen, "Neatest Trick Or Treat", 1956.

Witches are a common theme. In this 50's ad, it's difficult to tell what is being advertised (without the blatant product shot) and what is going on. At least Griffin Microsheen show almost an entire shiny shoe - worn by a scary creepy pumpkinhead, accompanied by his burlesque witch in scantily-clad black.

P&G, Hidden Magic Hairspray, Mademoiselle, September, 1965.

Ronrico, Rumkin, 1983.

More witches. P&G's Hidden Magic Hairspray and Ronrico Rum (and their "Rumkin") have eerily similar black witches selling their wares.

Milky Way Candy Bars, "Here Kiddie Kiddie Kiddie!", 1954.

Sun-Maid Raisins, "Trick Or Treat", 1964.

It wouldn't be Halloween without any "trick or treat" ads. These are from Milky Way Candy Bars and Sun-Maid Raisins. I think if you gave out raisins as a treat these days you may run the risk of being egged...??



These next few involve some interesting costume and dress-up.

Smirnoff Martini, Newsweek, 1968.

Smirnoff Vodka, "Frankenstein", 1967.

Two-Page Spread for General Telephone & Electronics (GTE) & Sylvania Incandescent-Fluorescent Bulbs, "Frankenstein", 1970.

GTE shed new light on bad flourescent lighting.

Litronix Calculators, 1975.

Is Dracula doing his best impersonation of Sesame Street's The Count? I don't get this one. Who "sticks their neck out" with a calculator? And why does a Litronix one solve this problem? The convoluted body copy goes some way to help explain it. But I still think it sucks.

Genuine Soil From Dracula's Castle, late 1970's.

Ads like this one featured quite prominently in comics back in the late 70's & early 80's. I don't know how many kids were duped into buying the "Genuine Soil from Dracula's Castle" - complete with "Certificate of Authenticity". And of course, it came in a little coffin-shaped pendant. All for just $9.95!

Panasonic Quintrix II, 1977.

I bet the reception on that box TV along with the screen clarity and color reproduction is frightful.

Elvira for LBMS, 1991.

And I couldn't have a Halloween post without the Mistress of the Dark herself, Elvira.

Here, she's plugging some 1991 era software which "cuts through" all the paperwork - hence the chainsaw visual pun. If only she'd used that metaphorical saw to cut through all that body copy text. And not a single trademark Elvira witty double entendre quip!.

Aussie Beer Ads - The Real Fair Dinkum Deal

Everybody has seen those Fosters beer ads which promote their brand as "Australian for Beer." You would think Fosters is a popular brand of beer in Australia.

Frankly speaking as an Australian, I can say that everybody knows about Fosters but I don't know anybody who actively seeks to drink it. It's viewed as more of a beer for exporting - "fosterizing the world" and not so much for actual consumption.

As a nation of beer-sculling larrikins, the Australian beer market is highly competitive. Likewise, the market for Australian beer advertisements. These are usually divided into the different regional and state beers which dominate the market.

There were some classic beer TV ads from the 1980's. From the jingoistic Victoria Bitter ad which ended with the line, "matter of fact I've got it now" (from Victoria) to Queensland's XXXX brand beer (pronounced fourex) with the tagline, "Australians wouldn't give a XXXX for anything else."

Another recent viral video by Victoria Bitter (VB) called "The Regulars" is an "ad for the every-man" and speaks directly to and for VB's target audience. It was launched at the start of summer, 2009, by ad agency Droga5.

Other memorable campaigns include Tasmania's Cascade "Big Cans" and the more recent and disturbing "Tongue" ad for Tooheys Dry. I'm not sure if crawling detached tongues really makes me want to try a Tooheys.  

But there has been a series of TV ads in recent years for Carlton Draught that has really got people reaching for their beer.

It began to take off with a viral video named the "big ad" in 2005 - which eventually ended up on TV. Carlton  Draught's "Made from Beer" campaign by ad agency, George Patterson Y&R, won numerous awards and grew to an epic popularity worldwide.

This parodied both the big blockbuster Lord of the Rings movies released earlier in the decade as well as a memorable "Global Face" TV ad for British Airways back in 1989.

The song parodied in "Big Ad" is Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana. The production had a cast of approximately 300 extras. The rest were added digitally with CGI.

This was a tough act to follow but in 2006, Y&R launched "Flashbeer" - which silenced the critics again.

Another parody - this time the iconic final dance scene to the 1980's dance movie classic "Flashdance." The song from the movie is Giorgio Moroder & Irene Cara's "Flashdance... What A Feeling." The popularity of this ad also sent it into the viral halls of fame.

So how did Carlton Draught follow this up?

In 2010, they turned to Clemenger BBDO - who continued the "Made from Beer" tradition with the TV ad "Slow Mo."

The ad makes classic and iconic "slice of life" scenes inside any Aussie pub look almost classy and tasteful with the slow motion effect and the accompaniment of a "Nessun Dorma" parody. If you listen closely the words have been changed - not everyone picks this up the first time.

These three ads have cemented the Carlton Draught brand into the traditional Australian beer advertising narrative.

To the marketing team at Carlton Draught, I say, "good on ya" for a tip-top effort.