Boo! Great post. Halloween is fun and, while tons higher in calories, it's loads lighter on pocketbooks than other holidays. Want to hear a CRAZY comparison?

The NRF that places Halloween spending at $5 billion also places Valentine's Day spending at $13 billion--that's a lot of love.

P.S.: Pets in costumes just plain rock.

I think Halloween has some important lessons for us as marketers.
1) the power of the deadline - you can prepare all you like, but you have to deliver on the day
2) the need for novelty - don't just look like every other ghoul (sorry couldn't resist)
3) look at the world differently - sure try looking through the eyes of a child - but don't let that be the end point. Reimagine the world.
4) recapture trust - it takes you a lot further and helps you to grow

I think I like your "equal opportunity" reason the most. I'm not big into any holidays, but I love the fact that halloween is not owned by anyone - so everyone gets to participate as much or as little as they want. (I'm not a big decorator, but I always have "the good" candy!).

Happy Halloween!!

CK: Interesting comparison....but I would bet that candy-for-candy...mano e mano...Halloween is a bigger candy day. But maybe not?

Gavin: Love it! Wish I thought of that...you have a whole nuther post there.

Ann: Having "the good candy" endears you to the children for their lifetime.... I *still* remember the houses on my street that had the good stuff!

Although Halloween has never been my personal 'thing', I completely agree with you about putting the 'fun' back in the day. A woman here at work tells us that her toddler is not having dress up day at daycare because Halloween might offend some of the families. Excuse me? It's Halloween...it's supposed to be fun for kids. A time when, as you say, everyone can participate. Even the dogs! Let the kiddies have their fun.

Oh, and I, too, remember the houses with the 'good' candy. They were always the first stop.

Happy Halloween everyone!

I like the equal opportunity angle, but for me - it's the kids thing. I can be a crotchety auntie (as your kids can attest, Ann) at times, but having lived in my Burlington neighborhood for 3 years now, and gotten to know the 15 or so children 9 and under.. I really do enjoy all of their excitement and costumes. Without them, I'd just stay out of it. They remind me how much fun it was when I was a kid. Now.. I have to run to the store to lay in a supply of tootsie rolls. (is that "good" candy?)

My best childhood memories revolve around Halloween. Growing up in a small New England town meant going to the streets in groups of kids chaperoned by moms and dads.

As we grew older, the moms and dads departed (big mistake for the town) but the friendships acquired over the trick-or-treating years remained. Some groups even grew.

Today, I live in a New England suburb on a busy street and seldom receive trick-or-treaters. We leave the lights on and have lots of candy. So stop in if you are in the neighborhood.

Boo!

I believe it was about 10 years ago that retailers started appealing to adults and the adult costume party started re-gaining popularity. A great move by the industry.

BTW the dog pic is classic!

Ann: I bet Halloween is more candy than V-day. The thing about V-day is that there are pricier gifts (think diamond rings, 5-course dinners, brazilian roses, etc.).

That's why Halloween doesn't seem so "jaded" to me. At day's end, kids just want a pumpkin, a costume and loads of sugar. The important things, really :-).

$5 billion spent on Halloween this year, huh?

According to Wikipedia, the Red Cross raised $1 billion in donations in the 30 days after Hurricane Katrina.

We Americans must REALLY love Halloween!

And dogs are integral to the Halloween experience.

Good post!

Read all about Halloween in China !!

http://i-wisdom.typepad.com/iwisdom/2006/10/terrifying_etre.html

Love Halloween. Love the post. Love the dog trick-or-treaters. Love Gavin's "lessons for marketers" and have one more to add.

You can put a "costume" on your products and services,but all the packaging, promotion, and slick marketing in the world won't disguise it for long if your product doesn't provide good value at a fair price.

Now I'm off to Salem, Massachusetts - world capital of Halloween - to help my sister give out candy to the hordes she's expecting (and see if I can snag a Butterfinger or two from my nieces loot bag).

Thanks for the fun post, Ann---and the memories of Halloween in the Northeast. Still enjoy dressing up---but it's for the trick-or-treaters, not me, of course!

Happy Halloween!

Those are all great reasons, Ann, but my primary reason for loving Halloween is that the French think they are too good for it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061031/wl_nm/life_france_halloween_dc

One of the things that I love about Halloween is the season that it takes place in. I love Autumn—when the air goes crisp and the leaves are all over the place. And I love the creepy crawly stuff too.

This Halloween I've already taken my 5 year old on a Haunted Hayride and Haunted Forest. He loves the thrill.

I wonder what Halloween looks like in places that don't experience Autumn. I'm sure it's just as fun, but for me—the two make for a great combination.

Today I get to take Captain America and The Hulk out for trick or treats. And as I look out the windows—the big elm tree in front of my hourse has gone yellow.

Doesn't get any better than this.

:)

Thanks for the comments, all.

Donna: My kids are long passed preschool age, but I know they banned Halloween celebrations at their school years ago, too, mostly because the smallest kids found some freakish costumes too scary. I sort of understand that one....having some pretty yellow-livered little ones at one point.

Andrea: I think it's more about size. Buy the big Tootsies if you can -- "fun size" are NOT fun! (My kids say.)

Lewis: Me, too....and...

Mack: Finally someone mentioned the graphic! Isn't that the best?

Scott: Looks like the Chinese are stepping up to fill in a spot eschewed by the French (see Jan's link).

Maureen: Have fun in the Halloween Capital.May you find a parking spot. : )

And DA: Nice reminder. For me, Halloween more or less delineates "golden, warm autumn" from "cold gray autumn." But for tonight, you're right -- it doesn't get any better.

Ann, you've started a trend, look at all these dressed-up pooches on parade: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0610/gallery.topdog/content.1.html?cnn=yes

Haaaaappy Halloweeeeeen!

Not only do I enjoy your writing
I love the responses here & spirit of play. It's the one day we can BE WHO WE'RE NOT. Marketing dogs to the mix gives one year more to target tv ads &
sales for Pet Co.
oo ...Kathy
-

It is with a little nostalgia in my heart that I cooked my now-famous Jello Brain (yes, it is a jello mold in the shape of a brain and it does freak out the little ones!), carved a pumpkin with my son and baked those pumpkin seeds. Why am I nostalgic? My son is a senior in high school and next year, it is likely he will not be here to share in the fun. So I will have to find another reason to keep up the traditions we have shared, and hope that someday he will pass them on to his children. Sigh... thanks for the post, Ann.

When I (we?) attended grammar school, we celebrated Halloween as strictly a kids' day, replete with school sponsored costume parades. I remember planning months in advance what I was going to "be". Back in the olden of days, we didn't buy costumes ready-made, but rather my mom adapted something already around the house - a sailor's smock became a penguin costume with adult-length sleeves flapping as flippers; the most one could buy ready-made consisted of flimsy plastic masks, which restricted both sight and breath.

It was, however, a universally observed celebration for children and I don't imagine one out of a hundred sulked twilight out in sullen, solitary gloom; everyone participated and nobody worried about the contents of the candy bag, save perhaps the dentist. On my baby-boom block in suburban Mill Valley dwelt twenty-seven grammar school aged children; one childless household turned off all lights and refused to answer the door, but widowed Mrs. Bonetti gave out whole Hershey bars!

Even prior to Stonewall in 1969, the growing community of self-aware gay men had begun to adopt Halloween as their own celebration because on that day, and on that day alone of all the year, could men dress as women and not be subject to arrest, legal harassment having been otherwise a constant threat in pre-liberation days.

After Stonewall, when gay men (and women) could congregate freely, Halloween became another day to proclaim liberation unofficially. The sight of multitudes of colorful, clever and campy costumes parading in gay abandon began to draw crowds to specifically gay milieus - the Castro District, West Hollywood, Greenwich Village - and non-gay tourists flocked to the fun. I remember fantastic, imaginative (and difficult to wear) costumes on the street - Tippi Hedren from The Birds, complete with phone booth and attacking flock of seagulls, for instance.

(My personal rules for costume are: 1. Can I eat in it? 2. Can I dance in it? 3. Can I get through a door intact?)

Within a decade Halloween had migrated from children to gay men and thence to all adults, eventually to become the second most profitable business holiday, outstripping Valentine's Day and approaching Christmas. Along the way, celebrants accentuated the Gothic, ghoulish and ghastly undercurrent now so prevalent. Also, another darker element discovered the anonymous abuse potential of free candy and began to perpetrate acts of pedophobic aggression through trick or treat candies, alas.

Now of course, it's the day when nice girls can dress as sluts and hitherto straight men can don a wig and toreador pants and everyone can shake their booties with wicked abandon as someone other than their usual persona; even bank clerks wear witch hats and cowboy six-shooters. A few short years ago, Ruby's Costumes could not secure meetings with studio executives to license movie character costumes; now it's a multi-billion dollar business, with entire families dressed as The Incredibles, and movies are made and marketed with licensing pre-negotiated.

All this hoopla has drawn the ire of certain fundamentalist groups who perceive a Satanic ritual amidst Little Mermaid dresses, French maids and dynel wigs. Perhaps a prurient Puritanical streak prevails; perhaps they simply mistrust fun as they can’t believe it could possibly be innocent. They'd hate it even more if they understood how this (primarily US) event came to national prominence on the backs of drag queens giddy with a moment's respite from oppression.

Trick or Treat!

Jim

i hope all of you had a great hallowen. we do not celebrate it so much here in italy but i know there were some parties around.
b.t.w. this morning a right side newspaper is titled against halloween because against religion.

Halloween is all about the kids?

Maybe I've been going about it all wrong, but I thought it was about getting drunk and girls in slutty costumes. Maybe that's just me. :)

You forgot to add that this holiday is for the "kids" in all of us. Who says Halloween is just for kids anymore? Adult costume are just as big of sellers.

Our work place does have a Halloween party over the lunch break. We have competitions for chili cook off, dessert, pumpkin carving and costumes. Grand Prize: a vacation day. Who wouldn't dress up for that!

Hallowee is all about me getting to dress up as Darth Maul for six hours, having my picture taken by random people, and not being put in a rubber room because of it.

Ann,

You nailed it! Halloween is about FUN, KIDS, COMMUNITY, and here in Des Moines, Iowa, Halloween is DIFFERENT than anywhere else.

In the late 1930's our Parks and Recreation Director put some new guidelines into "Beggars Night". Every child must do a trick (tell a joke, sing a song, perform a cartwheel, etc…) before getting a piece of candy. It's called "Trick-or-Treat" and it's a tradition that has lasted nearly 70 years. The tradition has actually been studied by Halloween historians and it can be traced right back here to Des Moines.

Here's the best joke I heard this year:

Q: What did the Zen Master say to the hot dog vendor?

A: Make me one with everything!

That was worth a whole handful of Laffy Taffy!!

Happy Halloween!!

I love the blog that you have. I was wondering if you would link my blog to yours and in return I would do the same for your blog. If you want to, my site name is American Legends and the URL is:

www.americanlegends.blogspot.com

If you want to do this just go to my blog and in one of the comments just write your blog name and the URL and I will add it to my site.

Thanks,
David

I am made of pumpkin!

I am made of pumpkin!