Ha ha? Spirit Halloween responds to those fake costume memes – syracuse.com
Does Spirit Halloween think those fake costume memes are as funny as some social media users do?
The seasonal store has been targeted this month with a viral trend of fake Halloween costumes featuring the company’s logo, often creating generic descriptions for a specific celebrity, TV show or movie. Popular examples include a “tragic space couple” (Anakin and Padme from “Star Wars”), an “old hater DJ” who rants about vinyl on Facebook, a “conservative guy scared of cities,” a “professional screenwriter” (just a bathrobe), and a Gen Z “influencer from an upper class background.”
Some celebrities have had fun with it, including Meghan Trainor, DJ Diplo, “Unholy” singer Kim Petras and rapper Lil Nas X, who laughed off a Photoshopped image of a “gay person in a terrible outfit” costume.
“It’s funny until u realize both of my dead grandmothers stitched this outfit together by hand right before passing and i wore it to go and donate to a childrens hospital after volunteering at a soup kitchen for the homeless. not so@funny now is it?” Lil Nas X joked.
According to NBC, the “Fake Spirit Halloween Costumes” meme originated in 2019 with an image of a fake Guy Fieri costume labeled “Governor of Tasteville.” The joke is that Halloween retailers sometimes sell pre-packaged costumes with a bogus description to avoid being sued for copyright (or pay expensive licensing fees), even though we all know Fieri is the “Mayor of Flavortown” and there’s no mistaking his spiked hair, goatee and bowling shirt look.
But the trend recently resurfaced, and some apparently don’t realize that they’re looking at fake costumes.
“Seriously, Spirit Halloween?” a Twitter user wrote along with a photo of a “Gay Guy” costume, showing a man with a rainbow flag over his shoulders.
The product is not real and does not match anything similar on Spirit Halloween’s website.
“This is not an officially licensed costume from our company,” Spirit Halloween tweeted in response. “Photoshopping our packages seems to be trending at the moment. We will be passing this to our review team. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.”
The company did not say what action it plans to take, but did show it still has a sense of humor.
“is this too meta? #SpiritHallowmeme,” @SpiritHalloween wrote Thursday, along with a photo of a “Spirit Halloween” costume that includes “a store sign for the abandoned building you plan to take over” and “the will to exist for only 3 months.”
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