After much rivalry, smack-talk, and closed-door sessions, the 2008 pumpkin line-up was revealed yesterday for AW’s Third Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest.

Each year, the competition gets more fierce, and this year was no exception. Teams pulled out all the stops … giving their pumpkins personalites, acting out skits, and even injecting a little multi-media into their presentations.

Check out the amazing entries below.
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Branders and marketers take full advantage of creating names for holiday events, as evidenced by the plethora of Halloween-inspired names this year. Take a peek at some examples in the Queen City:

Scarowinds
Adding one letter to the original brand offers instant brand recognition

Boo at the Zoo
Rhyming adds memorability

The Amazing Maize Maze
Not necessarily Halloween-related, but homonyms are always fun

In other areas, you can find:

Halloween Spooktacular (SeaWorld)
MetroBoo (Miami Metro Zoo)
Monster Splash (Miami Seaquarium)
Howl-o-Ween (various canine-inspired Halloween parties)

What are some other Halloween-inspired brands or event names you’ve seen this year?

What’s your generation?

Interbellum Generation (born 1901 – 1910)
Derived from the Latin inter- between and bellum- war, this generation was too young to have served in World War I, and generally too old for World War II.

The Greatest Generation (born 1901 – 1924)
This generation fought and/or kept the home front intact during World War II, honored by Tom Brokaw as the greatest generation any society has ever produced.

Silent Generation (born 1925 – 1945)
Too young to be world war two heroes, two old for the counterculture, this group is largely overlooked. Within it, however, exists American literary expatriates who lived in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, referred to as the Lost Generation.
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Carvers of the Great Pumpkin Forehead team seem destined to win the annual Pumpkin Project this year. With representatives from all/nearly all departments, the team will no doubt benefit from a multi-disciplined approach to crafting the winning design.

The team includes Amy, Natasha, Kristin, Nihn, Betsy and Evelyn, and boasts the highest number of department heads of any team in this year’s competition. Other factors weighing-in for the win include:

Kristin has already proven her fruit and vegetable design skills. References available from Miss Ava Cado.
Evelyn brings collegiate-level carving experience to the team.
Natasha has been on every winning team since the competition’s inception.

The team members were unavailable for comment on their design strategy, but did say they were eager to live up to their winning potential.