Top Halloween Video Ads of 2026

Lapse Productions tracks the best Halloween video ads every year, because no other season gives brands the same licence to be scary, silly, or genuinely strange. The 2025 season raised the bar again, from Heinz turning horror movie blood jet black to Fanta putting five horror icons on its cans.

This updated guide covers the campaigns worth studying: the standouts from the most recent season, the classics that still hold up, and the practical lessons for planning your own Halloween video before the window closes.

What Won Halloween 2025?

The season’s clearest trend was product-as-prop: the winning brands did not decorate their ads with pumpkins, they made the product itself the twist. Heinz made its new condiment the blood. Fanta made its cans the collectibles. IKEA made its cushions the costume. Here is the full lineup this guide covers, old and new.

Heinz: Mayo Halloween (2025)

Heinz has spent years turning ketchup into Halloween blood, and in 2025 it flipped its own trick. Mayo Halloween, created by DAVID Sao Paulo for Kraft Heinz Brazil, launches a jet-black garlic mayo through a 40-second homage to vintage horror cinema: shot in black and white, with blood spraying across shower curtains and spilling down gravestones, until the film cuts to colour and reveals the liquid was the new black mayo all along. It closes with a Dracula figure happily eating a burger dressed in garlic mayo, the joke the whole film quietly builds toward.

Fanta: The Halloween Collection (2025)

Fanta’s 2025 campaign was the biggest swing of the season: a global partnership with Universal Pictures and Blumhouse that united five horror icons (Chucky, Freddy Fazbear, The Grabber, M3GAN, and Michael Myers) on collectible cans, backed by a limited-edition Chucky’s Punch flavour, QR-unlocked digital experiences, cinema tie-ins, and a Haunted Fanta Factory pop-up in New York. The video work lived in short social films and influencer content rather than one hero spot, and that was the point: the campaign was built to travel across stores, screens, and feeds at once, timed to the theatrical releases of Black Phone 2 and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.

IKEA: Halloween Essentials (2025)

IKEA and agency INGO skipped the monsters, pumpkins, and fake blood entirely. Halloween Essentials recast the KLOTSTARR cushion, the SMÅNUNNEÖRT duvet cover, and the MYRULL throw as the things we actually reach for when a horror movie gets tense. The campaign ran across print, out-of-home, and short social films, and it is the best recent proof that a single relatable insight can outperform a big production budget.

Which Classic Halloween Ads Still Hold Up?

These are the campaigns we keep coming back to, and each one teaches a different lesson.

Heinz: Vegetarian Vampire Recruitment (Tomato Blood)

Before the black mayo era, Heinz built its Halloween franchise on Tomato Blood. This entry cast TikTok star E.J. Marcus as a vegetarian vampire recruiting others to the cause, debuting during AMC’s premiere of Interview With the Vampire. It is a masterclass in owning a seasonal ritual: fake blood was already made of ketchup, so Heinz claimed the whole tradition.

Dietz and Watson: Hot Dog Bites with The Gabaghoul

Dietz and Watson invented The Gabaghoul, a mob-movie ghoul with devilishly good hosting tips, to make deli meat the hero of Halloween entertaining. The character is specific, funny, and endlessly extendable, which is exactly what a seasonal mascot should be.

Publicis Groupe: Sign Up Before You Die

Made for the Belgian non-profit Re-born To Be Alive, this campaign uses Halloween’s comfort with death to talk about organ donation. Belgians are automatically considered donors, but families often opt out after a loved one passes unless explicit permission was given first, so the film pushes people to sign up before they die. Proof that the season can carry a serious message without losing its edge.

La Maison grise: Fear Windows

For a Montreal women’s shelter, La Maison grise turned Halloween window displays into scenes of domestic violence, using the one night when houses are supposed to look frightening to show a horror that is real year-round. It is uncomfortable by design, and unforgettable for it.

Umault: Marketergeist

B2B agency Umault proves horror works for any audience. Marketergeist follows a couple haunted not by a ghost but by bad marketing, playing every haunted-house trope for laughs. If a B2B agency can make a Halloween film this watchable, most brands are out of excuses.

What Makes a Halloween Video Ad Work?

• One sharp idea. Every campaign above is built on a single insight or twist. The blood is mayo. The cushion is the costume. The haunted house is your marketing. Find the twist first, then produce it.
• Craft that serves the tone. Sound design, lighting, and pacing do the actual scaring. Heinz shot in black and white for a reason: the craft is the homage.
• A real brand connection. Heinz owns fake blood, IKEA owns the couch you hide behind, Fanta bought its way into horror fandom. If the link between your brand and the season feels forced, the audience feels it too.
• A clear next step. Even the spookiest film needs a call to action, whether that is a limited product drop, a QR code, or an organ donor registration.

For how ideas like these get developed, scheduled, and shot, see our Ultimate Guide to the Corporate Video Production Process.

When Should You Start Planning a Halloween Campaign?

Lock the concept by August, film by mid-September, and launch in early October, when audiences start actively looking for Halloween content. A seasonal spot is usually a promotional video at heart, and our video production services cover the whole run from concept to final cut. For the full seasonal calendar, deadlines included, read our guide to early planning for holiday video campaigns.

Frequently Asked Questions