The Impact of
Pop Culture
on Halloween
Written by Victoria Ho '24
From Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour to the “Barbenheimer” craze, 2023 has certainly been a year filled with important moments in pop culture. Endless memes and discussions have arisen from various events that occurred throughout the year, including the implosion of a submersible meant to explore the Titanic, wacky yet supposedly fashion-forward outfits at the Met Gala, the cycle of celebrity relationships and break-ups, Blue Ivy’s performances in the Renaissance Tour, and the “calling out” of nepo babies. These topics take over our social media feeds and infiltrate our real-world conversations with friends, inspiring endless debate over right and wrong. However, the buzz of pop culture conversations reaches a peak on the same day of every year: Halloween. When the holiday first began, people tended to wear more traditional costumes, leaning towards stereotypical characters such as witches, vampires or ghosts. However, the past few decades have revealed a transformation in the way that people interpret costumes, with more people than ever choosing to express their thoughts and feelings about major pop culture events through their costume choices.
According to Google Trends, the most searched-for Halloween costume of 2023 is Barbie, and the most searched-for costume for couples is Barbie and Ken. Given the Barbie movie’s dominance at the box office, having broken 17 box office records and earned nearly $1.4 billion worldwide, it’s no wonder that the pink, stylish movie with a focus on female empowerment has energized people to emulate the costumes they watched. Similarly, the most searched-for family costume on Google is the Addams Family, inspired by Netflix’s hit comedy-horror TV series, Wednesday, which was released in late November of 2022 — just barely missing last year’s Halloween. These blockbuster films and TV shows undoubtedly have a huge impact on our viewing habits, but events like Halloween exhibit the full extent of how influential visual media is, even after audiences have left the theatre or closed their laptops. The full visual impact of seeing multiple variations of Barbie and Ken, or hordes of Wednesdays trick-or-treating on Halloween undeniably underscores the substantial influence of pop culture on our perception of reality, thus showcase the extent to which these iconic characters seamlessly transcend the confines of the screen to integrate themselves into our tangible world through the power of our collective imagination and efforts.
Although one might lament the more traditional costumes of Halloween that appear to have fallen out of popularity, it seems as though pop culture’s increasing influence on Halloween is driven by positive cultural shifts. From people dressing up like celebrities or characters to creating innovatively funny costumes centred around online culture, these costumes are increasingly motivated by people’s desire to commemorate their favourite pop culture moments. Through Halloween costumes, pop culture inspires people to be creative and indulge in their passions, or even to showcase their sociopolitical opinions of the past year (remember all those Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton costumes in 2016?). In this digital age of rapid news cycles, Halloween presents an opportunity to momentarily distance ourselves from the ceaseless whirlwind of headlines. It encourages us to shift our focus towards introspection, allowing us to sift through the standout moments of the past year. In doing so, we can determine which of these moments resonate most with us, ultimately compelling us to physically embody and express them. Although we don’t typically think of Halloween costumes as thought-provoking or a reflection of important life events, perhaps it’s time that we start consciously doing so. Halloween might last just one night, but through the costumes we choose, it is evident that they are a manifestation of our values, opinions, and favourite memories that we carry with us all year.
