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New Delhi: What used to be a fleeting Western import—pumpkins, fake cobwebs, and “trick or treat” puns—is now finding its rhythm in Indian marketing calendars.
This Halloween, the scares came with a smile, as brands swapped imported fright for homegrown humour, folklore, and festive warmth. Across industries, marketers turned the festival into a creative playground, balancing parody, participation, and pop culture to make horror feel unmistakably Indian.
The tone this year was less about jump scares and more about joyful mischief. In a country already brimming with festivals, Halloween offered brands a brief but potent window to experiment with global aesthetics through desi storytelling.
The shift was visible even in unexpected categories. Bowlers, the pet nutrition brand from Allana Pet Solutions, entered the spooky chat with Trick and Treat, featuring cricketer Shubman Gill.
The campaign opened on a scene straight out of a Western Halloween, with doorbells ringing and bowls of treats ready, only for the trick-or-treaters to turn out to be dogs in costume. Gill’s playful confusion quickly turns into care as he reaches for Bowlers’ handcrafted, high-protein snacks. The film gently reminded pet parents to swap festive sweets for nutritious alternatives.
Warm and funny, it captured a growing comfort among Indian brands with using Halloween not as a borrowed aesthetic but as a storytelling cue, a way to express care, humour, and emotion within a global format.
If Bowlers turned Halloween into a moment of affection, Bingo! Mad Angles chose parody and cultural reclamation. With Desi Bhoot Bachao, created by Tonic Worldwide, the snack brand revived India’s forgotten ghosts, chudails, pret, and other folklore spirits, who protest against the dominance of Western horror characters. The film, shot like a chaotic TV newsroom, complete with overzealous anchors and dramatic camera pans, pokes fun at both cultural amnesia and media hysteria.
By positioning local ghosts as underdogs demanding attention, Bingo! cleverly used satire to remind audiences that Indian horror folklore has always been rich, messy, and full of character.
That playful social commentary carried into Tinder’s Halloween activation, but through the lens of relationships rather than spirits. Its Dating Scaries series tackled the “monsters” of modern romance, ghosting, gaslighting, and situationships, with three short videos featuring Indian TV’s most iconic villains: Urvashi Dholakia, Rajat Bedi, and Dalip Tahil.
Each episode drew on nostalgia for early-2000s melodrama while spotlighting contemporary dating anxieties. Dholakia’s Komolika called out manipulation, Bedi’s brooding charm exposed emotional ambiguity, and Tahil’s presence turned ghosting into literal theatre.
The campaign used irony to build relatability, turning fear into laughter, showing how even in the digital dating world, Halloween’s true trick lies in confronting our everyday “monsters”.
But not every brand went for laughs. JioHotstar took a subtler route with a citywide mystery activation promoting IT: Welcome to Derry. Red balloons appeared across Mumbai, creators posted cryptic clues, and blink-and-miss hints surfaced in Horror Addicts episodes, a rollout designed to reward attention rather than announcement.
The suspense worked. Posts by Tanmay Bhatt and Rohan Joshi, teasing “You never saw IT coming”, sparked speculation and excitement across social media, with audiences applauding the campaign’s quiet, immersive approach.
If the online space leaned on satire, the food and beverage industry turned Halloween into a full-blown experience. Wendy’s, operated by Rebel Foods, took things offline with Wendy’s Rave, Halloween Edition, transforming its outlets in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune into haunted diners and party zones. With eerie lighting, devil horn headbands, and surprise jump scares, guests were treated to a mix of unlimited burgers, beats, and bizarre encounters, a fusion of dining and entertainment that brought Halloween’s playful chaos to life.
For Indians, no festive season feels complete without something sweet, and the sugar rush continued with Yummy Bee, a Hyderabad-based café chain known for its gluten-free and sugar-free treats. Its film Dracula Has a Sweet Tooth flipped one of horror’s oldest tropes, Dracula’s thirst for blood, into a craving for guilt-free desserts. Humorous and tongue-in-cheek, the film built on Yummy Bee’s “clean indulgence” philosophy while showing how even classic horror can lend itself to mindful, creative storytelling.
What began as a niche, Western import has evolved into a moment for experimentation, where food chains host themed parties, beauty labels swap glamour for gore, and digital-first brands turn fright into fun.
The growing appetite for such experiences reflects how Indian consumers, especially younger audiences, are blending global pop culture with local sensibilities. Whether spooky or sweet, Halloween’s presence in the country’s marketing mix signals a broader shift: brands are learning to celebrate not just festivals, but the culture of participation itself.