Halloween has been steadily looming for a while, but it’s finally set to approach. Stores have had decorations up since early September, television stations have been playing scary movies and Halloween themed episodes of shows, and the infamous Reese’s commercials are back.
In the advertising world, different product types take different approaches to Halloween themes: some are scary, some are kid-friendly, some just change the colors to fit in with the holiday, and others don’t do anything at all.
That being said, I have never seen anything quite as innovative or scary as what Frito Lay has released withHotel 626. The online video game, sponsored by Doritos as a part of their “Snack Strong Productions” series, gives everything out of the scariest movies you’ve ever seen.
Inside the ghoulish game, the user acts as a guest at Hotel 626. You’re woken up in the middle of the night to strange noises, and you decide to go investigate their origin. Just like a movie so far, right? No calling the cops or taking protection with you, though — you’re just going to go investigate with your handy digital camera.
After you get out of bed, you walk down a dimly light hallway, using your mouse to designate your doom, and enter rooms like leaking bathrooms with creepy women and eerie bedrooms with ominous children and just about anything else you can imagine. Again, this makes the game very much like the movies, and as such it begs the question of why people chose to stay in these creepy dumps that have “hotel from hell” written all over them.
As far as the ending is concerned, I’ll leave that up to you to find out. This game is definitely not for the faint of heart, and if you enjoy a good scary movie you’ll thoroughly enjoy this. There is also the option to play Asylum 626, which has a similar premise, except you are a patient in a mental hospital. If you’re curious, YouTube videos detail the accounts at both Hotel 626 and Asylum 626.
Doritos always does an exemplary job of relating to its customers with advertising, through means like crowd-sourced commercials for the Super Bowl, and Hotel 626 is another example of Doritos’ scary good crowd-pleasing skills.
So if you think you have what it takes to live through these killer games give it a shot. While Hotel 626 may leave you with nightmares, Frito Lay and Doritos are sleeping easy.
