by Kedzie Schotters
Is it just me, or has Halloween gotten a little out of hand?
Every television show has a special; every product has a horror-themed ad, and every celebrity is hosting or attending a spooky soiree (see Heidi Klum above).
Don’t get me wrong—I love watching Al Roker prance around as Superman just as much as the next person. But what makes us so obsessed with Halloween? It doesn’t have the food of Thanksgiving, or the presents of Christmas.
I guess it has to be the costumes. Crazy, gory, over-the-top costumes that no one in their right mind would wear on any other day of the year. And that’s exactly what makes Halloween so much fun to celebrate year after year. But lately, Halloween has had a little transformation of its own, from .
First there’s the advertising. Halloween is essentially an advertiser’s excuse to start talking about Christmas—the Holy Grail of holidays—in October. It kicks off the holiday season, and as such, everyone participates, regardless of how irrelevant it is for their brand. For example, Best Buy insists that this Halloween, what we really need is a new computer because how else are we going to create all of the horror films that so many of us have been working on lately? Though this commercial is obviously only relevant to some, the main goal is to get people thinking about Best Buy in preparation for holiday shopping.
Secondly, today’s costumes are becoming excessive, in both clever unfortunate ways. The evolution of costumes from pumpkins, princesses, and puppies to sexy pumpkins, sexy princesses, and sexy puppies is an acceptable reality for adults. But now, that line between children’s and adult’s costumes has blurred. Kids’ skirts are just as short, just as tight, and just as inappropriate. If at all possible, I’d like to avoid seeing a sexy Dora the Explorer this year.
But, there’s another selection of costumes this Halloween that I actually applaud. They stem from our constantly evolving technology and prove imagination and creativity aren’t quite dead. One clever man used 2 FaceTiming iPads to make it appear as though he had a hole in his stomach. This is creative and absolutely brilliant. But for us geeks who don’t happen to have two iPads lying around, the most popular costumes this year are characters from Angry Birds, the most in demand iPhone gaming app. These costumes prove that media, more than ever, is playing a role in Halloween and it’s going to continue to be this way.
All in all, Halloween will always be a time to celebrate, and I suppose wearing a ridiculous ensemble is just part of the process. So here’s to wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and Snooki-free Halloween. Tomorrow you’ll be inundated with recipes for Thanksgiving, all while trying to get Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” out of your head.
Tags: entertainment, halloween, media
