Kitkat Halloween Campaign Flips Horror Cliches To Give Us All A Break From Cliches
J. Walter Thompson Global and J. Walter Thompson London’s content business PACE has created a Halloween campaign that would have George A. Romero turning in his grave. Instead of brain hungry zombies chasing down unwitting or gullible humans, the global campaign lets the audience take a break from the usual clichés that surrounds the global festival of spookiness by having the undead running away from the living and eschewing their fleshy treats in favour of KITKAT.
The campaign includes Boomerang teasers, loops of key sections as social content, an interactive fight element that allows you to pit Human hand against Zombie hand, Instagram stories and two films.
In “Zombie Chase” a Zombie dashes out of a tunnel giving the impression that it is chasing a human. However, in a move that turns the genre on its rotting head, a group of Humans then burst from the mouth of the tunnel chasing him for his KITKAT. He hides behind a car as the rampaging living pour past, before he devours the fingers.
In “Living Dead” the classic young couple on a date sit down in the traditional mist filled graveyard. As they whisper sweet nothings to each other a hand explodes out of a fresh grave behind them. It makes its way menacingly towards the couple, only to pinch a KITKAT from their bag and whisk it back to its grave.
Both films finish with the line “Have a Break from the Usual”.
With the exception of sound design and some graphics grading the entire campaign from creation, scripting, filming and editing to location, wardrobe and make-up was handled completely by J. Walter Thompson Global and its in-house production company PACE.
The interactive fight element is a YouTube film where fans can choose whether Human or Zombie hands win in a tug-of-war over a KITKAT. The teasers and loops take key images from the films and add pithy comments such as a shot of the Zombie holding a severed hand holding a KitKat with the caption: “When you consider giving up a whole arm for four fingers.”
