Why we can’t escape the zombie: Advertising’s undead achievements

I’m a movie buff, like most of you reading this, I suspect.

Of all the genres that have ever flickered across a cinema screen, the one that never fails to pull me back in – my comfort watch, my guilty pleasure, my cinematic home – is the zombie movie.

There’s something beautifully bleak about the facing the apocalypse surrounded by a horde of mindless, blank-eyed creatures.

There’s something beautifully bleak about the facing the apocalypse surrounded by a horde of mindless, blank-eyed creatures. As a commuter, I think that’s part of the appeal; the swarm, the crush, the slow-moving chaos that mirrors our daily lives, only stripped (slightly) of civility. It speaks to the fantasy of escape, of being one of the few who gets out while the world collapses around you. And, during lockdown, that imagery hit differently. The empty streets, the fear, the sense of waiting for something outside your door; we were all living in a low-budget zombie film.

Above: Zombie films will never die. 

Zombie fans are their own tribe. We’re the ones who’ll happily sink a pint and debate which supermarket we’d barricade ourselves in when the outbreak hits. We’ve got a go-bag by the door, a safe house in mind, and a strange affection for the end of the world. A zombie isn’t just a movie monster, it’s a mindset.

As a branch of horror, the zombie genre holds a unique place. Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman, all the grand monsters of the canon coax you into their world. You go to Dracula’s castle. You hunt the werewolf. You burn the monster. But the zombie? The zombie comes to you. You don’t seek it out, it finds you. It doesn’t seduce or stalk; it swarms. It doesn’t want revenge, power, or love. It just wants you.

That’s what makes the zombie truly terrifying: it’s not evil, it’s inevitable. It’s death in motion.

That’s what makes the zombie truly terrifying: it’s not evil, it’s inevitable. It’s death in motion. The slow shuffle of time itself. Eventually, it gets to your door, and eventually, it gets in. The zombie is horror’s purest metaphor for the thing we all try to outrun but never can.

From Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead, which gave us the rules of the modern undead, to the sprinting terrors of 28 Days Later and Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake, the zombie has evolved but never died. Then there’s Shaun of the Dead, the perfect blend of satire and sincerity, sealing the genre’s immortality. Since then, the zombie has staggered far beyond the graveyard gates of horror cinema into television, video games, books and, inevitably, advertising.

Because anything popular, anything truly universal, will always find its way into a commercial. And the zombie, being both crowd and contagion, was made for it. So, a Happy Halloween to you all and, to celebrate, here are just a few of the best examples of the undead in advertising, proof that even in the glossy, airbrushed world of commercials, rotting corpses still have bite.

Phones4U Zombie

Phones4U, at its peak, was the bravest of brands. Leaning into creepy with military precision and the grace of a butterfly, it just worked. This is an example of that bravery. “Make the zombie scary”... I simply can't imagine that happening today. This ad could be straight out of The Walking Dead were it not for the pinch of surrealism. Sporting a classic zombie, adam&eveDDB earns a hearty salute for clearly understanding the look and feel of a top shelf shuffler. 

Dead Island trailer

It's more or less impossible to make this list without including the Dead Island trailer. I recall when this dropped over a decade ago and was the hottest thing on shots for a long while. A micro-movie in its own right, with high stakes and emotion, all set to a tear jerking soundtrack. 

Pepsi Zombie Dadada

Zombies peeked in the 90s and became less than frightening. This Pepsi ad certainty manhandles the hoard of the dead. Rising literally from graves and displaying little-to-no scary elements. However, as a man who appreciates that the original Night of the Living Dead opens in a graveyard, I rank this one high. Tone matters, and this one has it. 

Lego Zombies

Clever doesn't cut it. This ad for Lego is genius in my books. Using the zombie in a totally fresh way, and you could swear these things meandered off the set of The Walking Dead. They just look fresh (or not, as the case may be). It would be so easy to remove the edge from them given the nature of the brand, but the gritty look and feel contrasts brilliantly with Lego’s bubbly personality. 

DayZ Surviving Chernarus 

Lastly, I have this offering from Bohemia Interactive. I love it when advertising goes all out to entertain and dance on that little line we call ‘branded content’. A live-action ad for the greatest video game of all time (sorry Dead Island). DayZ is an open world survival game that's a top shelf zombie experience (sorry, they're 'infected', not zombies... same difference). As filmmaking goes, this one feels very much like a melee of experiences that's wonderfully art directed, and shows one of the most frightening aspects of the hypothetical end of the world… other people.