Funniest Halloween Puns for Your Marketing Campaigns
The spookiest night of the year is just around the corner. And while consumers wait for Halloween to dress up in costumes, go to a themed party, and enjoy some treats, for brands, it’s a golden moment to drive sales. With 72% of Americans planning to celebrate this day and spend an average of $103 per person, you definitely don’t want to miss out.
Everyone loves Halloween for its cheerfulness with a touch of mysticism and a slight madness. Keep this playful spirit alive with witty holiday communication. Have no fear, you don’t have to come up with anything extraordinary! It’s enough to choose catchy images and enhance them with hilarious Halloween puns. To save you time, we’ve pulled a list of 50 creative examples of festive wordplay. Check it out, along with spooky puns from top brands and Halloween marketing ideas to get inspired for your own successful campaign.
Puns in marketing: how to use them for the best effect
A pun plays on the sound similarity of words or phrases with different meanings. Such verbal tricks are popular in everyday usage and marketing communication, where they grab audience attention immediately and remain highly memorable. A splendid example of incorporating a pun in branding is Dollar Shave Club’s slogan, which is renowned for its whimsical humor. “Shave time. Shave money” features brilliant wordplay and clearly communicates the brand’s advantages.
Puns, like humor in general, are a go-to tool for businesses to show personality and stand out. Since laughter evokes happy, positive emotions, it helps brands establish a more friendly and trustworthy image. In addition, hilarious communication has the greatest viral potential, as humor encourages sharing with others.
Humor is something that can make or break your communication. Follow these tips when using puns:
- Understand what kind of humor your audience likes. Researching your target audience will help you better understand their preferences, especially when it comes to content. Analyze what type of humor they prefer. Is it witty, parodic, or maybe dark? It will help you choose the right humorous strategy for campaigns and achieve the desired effect.
- Connect puns with your brand. Even when you use common Halloween puns, choose options that match your brand’s identity. Friendly, daring, or creepy—pick what suits you best.
- Don’t raise sensitive topics. Avoid humor about nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or political preferences. You risk offending a specific category of people and ruining your brand reputation.
Despite all the benefits of humor, from boosting organic reach to brand personalization, most businesses (95%) are afraid to use it. At the same time, this is exactly what audiences want. 91% of consumers favor funny brands, and 72% prefer a brand that utilizes humor instead of competition. Of course, not every business and product can match witty communication like Dollar Shave Club. However, in a particular context, almost any brand can afford a bit of frivolity. And Halloween sets the perfect context.
Limit the seriousness of your communication to meet what audiences want. Start with something as simple as funny Halloween puns. We have gathered a bunch of options for different tastes. Check them out to find the most appealing holiday pun for your brand!
Halloween puns in marketing campaigns: brand cases
1. McDonald’s — Trick or Cheese
Sometimes, the most creative ideas are the simplest. McDonald’s skillfully fits its product into the holiday context. A cute image of burger cheese resembling a ghost immediately attracts the eye and sets the right mood. And the witty pun is the cherry on top. The campaign is clear, catchy, and impactful.
Image source: Ads of the World
2. Bacardi — Raising spirits
The Bacardi brand excellently plays on the ambiguity of the word “spirit.” The main characters of their fun video campaign are invisible spirits that keep the holiday spirit alive with company drinks. It’s a superb mix of wit and branding, reinforced by a compelling message.
3. Old Spice — Fangtastic Halloween
Old Spice is well known for its bold sense of humor. The brand has always been great at creating clever and playful ads, like in this holiday campaign. The company’s product is seamlessly blended into the visual narrative of Halloween, and the bloody slogan supports the key vampire theme.
Image source: Ads of the World
4. Tesco — Spookermarket
Tesco went beyond standard holiday offers and created an exciting and slightly creepy shopping experience for customers, all by combining mystical events with characters from horror movies. The lucky ones who visited spookermarkets were able to fully immerse themselves in the holiday atmosphere.
5. Burger King — A.I.LLOWEN
Halloween is a holiday with long-established mythology and symbolism. It is not surprising that holiday communication is based mainly on traditional imagery, such as pumpkins, ghosts, and witches. However, some brands manage to find fresh and highly topical themes, as in this case. Burger King raises the critical issue of the threat from AI misuse, illustrating it with generated images of distorted people. The name of the campaign, which combines AI and Halloween, is a perfect statement of the concept.
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25 Funny Halloween puns for your marketing campaigns 🎃
- Get ready for a fang-tastic feast!
- Are you dying to have a good time?
- We witch you a happy Halloween!
- May the ghost be with you!
- Bugs and hisses to you!
- Creeping it real this Halloween.
- Looking brew-tiful tonight!
- Love at first bite.
- Halloween’s not the same if we can’t be witch you.
- Have a terror-ific time!
- Sending you our best witches.
- Just having a gourd time!
- Carve out some fun!
- It’s the most wonderful time of the fear.
- Every boo-tiful moment counts!
- Fright for the right to party!
- Boo to you from our сrew.
- Hang around for a spell.
- Join us for a scary good time!
- Let’s get this party startled!
- Time to pumpkin spice things up.
- You’ve got us under your spell.
- Let’s have some skele-fun.
- Fasten your sheet belts!
- More boos, please.
Halloween puns for discounts and product offers: brand cases
1. Dunkin Donuts — Eeriesistible treats
Since many people associate Halloween with sweets, it’s a prime time for food companies and restaurants. Dunkin Donuts has been the ultimate creative in setting the holiday mood. The brand introduced Halloween-inspired treats with cute thematic decorations and funny names.
Image source: Facebook
2. Target
Supermarkets prepare Halloween offers in advance, as consumers start looking for holiday products and deals as early as September. Target has collected thematic offers in a dedicated section to make it easier for their audience to find the right goods. The catchy design in festive colors attracts the eye and encourages “Get ready to fright and delight.”
Image source: Target website
3. Mars — Halloween it like you mean it
Candy is something you can’t imagine Halloween without. An impressive fact: during the 2024 holiday season, Americans are expected to spend $3.5 billion on sweets. It is a gold mine for candy producers, so they focus all their marketing efforts on captivating their audience. Clever messages play an important role here.
Image source: Facebook
4. NYX — Mon-Star Bash
Since carnival culture with spectacular costumes and makeup is an essential component of Halloween, cosmetics brands take advantage of this opportunity to promote their products. This year, NYX and Universal Studios partnered to create an exciting campaign that brings movie monsters like Dracula, Wolf-Man, and Frankenstein to life. In support of the campaign, the brand also launched a new holiday collection of products, “Mon-Star Bash,” perfect for thrilling Halloween looks.
Image source: NYX website
5. Walmart
Marketplaces are considered to be the most popular shopping destinations for consumers, as they offer everything you need for Halloween: costumes, pumpkins, thematic decor, candy—you name it. Walmart supports customers’ shopping excitement with funny communication that can’t be missed.
Image source: Walmart website
25 Halloween puns for discounts and product offers 🦇
- If the broom fits, buy it!
- Deals that will make you scream.
- Boo-ya! These prices are scary good.
- Sales are creeping up.
- Bat-ter late than never!
- Time to goblin all that candy up.
- Don’t let these discounts scare you!
- Deals you’ll bat your eyes at.
- Our prices are ghosting us!
- This will definitely come in candy.
- Spells like a good deal to us!
- Halloween only comes once a year, and so do these sales.
- Happy haunting!
- We’re at your spooky service.
- You can’t always get what you wand.
- Bone appétit!
- Spooky sales that’ll make you jump.
- Gourd-looking deals this fall.
- Don’t be a scaredy-cat! Let us help you.
- Hey boo-tiful!
- Get monster savings this season.
- Love at first bite.
- All treats, no tricks inside.
- Our products will leave you spellbound.
- Witch deal will you choose?
Quick Halloween marketing ideas
Even though Halloween is just a few weeks away, you still have time to launch a holiday campaign. It can be something as simple as a thematic social media post or display ads. Check out this list of marketing ideas to make the most of the holiday occasion.
1. Engage your audience on social media
There are so many options for interacting with your followers! Run a photo contest for Halloween costumes, makeup, or pumpkins; share holiday recipes or a list of horror movies; post an atmospheric video or themed party ideas. Complete your posts with holiday hashtags such as #halloween #spooky #horror #spookyseason #trickortreat.
2. Launch a holiday email campaign
Deliver special holiday deals directly to email inboxes to make sure they don’t go unnoticed. Combine striking visuals with clear messages and compelling calls to action. Use Halloween puns to create catchy subject lines or add them to the main image to draw attention effectively.
3. Share thematic content
Halloween is about entertainment. You can support this by sharing thematic content on your channels. Write a blog post, make a video, or run a creative mini-project. For example, our blog offers articles about Halloween symbolism, recipes, image collections, and marketing ideas.
4. Start a limited-time sale
As we already know, people are willing to spend money on Halloween. Take advantage of this opportunity to increase sales by launching a holiday sale. Offer discounts, free shipping, gifts for purchases, or BOGO (buy one, get one) deals. Don’t forget to announce your Halloween promotions on social media so that they don’t get lost among the flood of content.
5. Refresh your website design
Surprise your visitors by giving your website a seasonal makeover. Don’t worry: you don’t have to do a complete redesign. Adding festive symbols, dark mode, or thematic banners with Halloween puns will be enough. How about a spider web background or an animated ghost flying on the screen? Such an update will motivate visitors to spend more time on your page and add to their festive mood.
To sum up
Keep in mind that people expect Halloween to be fun. And while consumers have shopping plans for this period, they are first and foremost looking for exciting and positive emotions. You can win their attention (and wallets) by offering fun experiences. So, don’t be afraid to have a little fun in your brand communication. Add a little holiday magic and hilarious Halloween puns to it. Let’s get this party startled! 👻
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