Halloween is just around the corner, but before you can indulge in candy you’ll have to pick your costume (if you haven’t already).
Never one to be left out of Halloween fun, we at MediaMiser analyzed online news for some of this year’s top costumes to determine which ones are getting the most attention in the U.S., UK, and Canada.
Working from a list of top costumes from Google Trends (with a few of our own inclusions), our online analysis revealed that the top mentioned Halloween costumes across all three countries were “clown”, “witch” and “Donald Trump.”
| United States | Canada | United Kingdom | |
| 1 | Clown | Clown | Witch |
| 2 | Witch | Donald Trump | Clown |
| 3 | Donald Trump | Princess | Vampire |
| 4 | Cat | Harley Quinn | Cat |
| 5 | Hillary Clinton | Cat | Donald Trump |
| 6 | Vampire | Zombie | Zombie |
| 7 | Zombie | Batman | Harley Quinn |
| 8 | Star Wars | Hillary Clinton | Princess |
| 9 | Princess | Star Wars | Dinosaur |
| 10 | Batman | Pirate | Batman |
But don’t get us wrong — despite their high mentions in the news, these Halloween costumes may not actually be the most popular this year.
In fact, the high mentions of clown costumes can largely be attributed to these getups being banned in schools across the U.S., Canada and the U.K., following what some have termed an epidemic of creepy clowns popping up in various cities.
After “scary clown threats” hit social media, CBS Philly reported that a number of schools had banned students from wearing clown masks on school property. Huffington Post Canada and The Daily Mail reported similar bans.
Interestingly, Harley Quinn and The Joker were not amongst the top ten most mentioned costumes in U.S. online news – despite these costumes dominating Google Trend rankings following the release of Suicide Squad earlier this year.
The notions of dressing up either as a witch or Donald Trump also seemed to hold a certain appeal in the news media. While witches weren’t all that popular in Canada, they got a lot of attention in the US and UK.
Donald Trump, for his part, scored high in all three countries with the most mentions occurring in Canada. Hillary Clinton costumes were also among the top ten in mentions in the U.S. and Canada.
