Buried down below this year’s spooky spicy promotion of the new Ghost Pepper Chicken Fries and return of the Ghost Pepper Whopper, Burger King has slyly crept in on McDonald’s Halloween territory. According to a press release sent to The Takeout, in select markets Burger King will also be releasing glow-in-the-dark Halloween buckets, decorated with cartoon images of ghost-pepper-shaped chicken ghosts.
The buckets will be rolling out Friday, October 13 at Burger King locations in Nashville, Las Vegas, Charlotte, and Atlanta. Customers in those areas can snag the buckets for $1 with any purchase.
Fast food Halloween buckets, explained
For those less versed in the history of plastic merchandise produced by fast food chains, McDonald’s brought back its beloved “Boo Buckets” in 2022 after a six-year hiatus. The blog Nightmare Nostalgia broke the news of their return, having received a leaked image of McDonald’s 2022 promotional calendar which included a Boo Buckets Drop date. The initial rumors swirling around the pails’ return had the internet in a complete tizzy; McDonald’s quickly confirmed the Halloween pails were indeed making a comeback in 2022.
The reintroduced Halloween buckets came in the form of McBoo, McPunk’n, and McGoblin, each of which came in different colors and featured multiple expressions printed on each side. Although the first promotional images of the McDonald’s Halloween pails appeared to show a lid included, this turned out to be, oddly enough, a two-dimensional silhouette of a lid clipped onto the bucket’s handle. Regardless of this strange design choice, the promotion was a hit, and nostalgic fans are already on the hunt for confirmation that the spooky meal buckets will return in 2023.
McDonald’s Boo Buckets vs. Burger King’s Halloween pail
On September 28, the social media account @Snackolator posted an image to both X and Instagram showing the 2023 McDonald’s Boo Buckets. The image includes four buckets rather than three, and the faces of the returning “characters” bear new designs.
“McDonald’s is bringing Boo Buckets back in 2023 and this time they have FOUR buckets!” read the post. The quoted release date is October 17.
While McDonald’s has yet to publish a public press release or respond to request for comment on the status of the Halloween pails, Burger King has wasted no time in designing its own candy carrier for the spooky season—and if the Boo Buckets’ reported October 17 release date is correct, then BK is scheduled to beat McDonald’s to the punch.
The fact that Burger King’s Halloween bucket glows in the dark is a clever way to up the ante. This is a feature McDonald’s own Boo Buckets have not had since 1990, per Nightmare Nostalgia. The release might be limited, but it’s got an extra element of fun, and you don’t have to limit yourself to ordering a kid’s meal just to get one.
As much as McDonald’s wants to build anticipation for its Halloween promotion, it might want to act quick in announcing what it’s got in store this year. Pumpkin Spice season comes earlier each year, and it looks like spooky season is no different.