Industries have their villains. Brands have their ghosts of past mistakes. We’re all haunted by something. The Haunted Issue is our next installment of Volume, Codeword’s digital industry and culture zine, where we bravely hunt down what scares us about our industry and ask why we love being scared.
Of course, marketers take a risk when they use fear in storytelling. The results can be thrilling, disturbing, or just plain corny. (The only one that scares me here is corny.) The Haunted Issue points a flickering flashlight around a haunted movie theater to understand the difference. We uncover the innovators who are transforming the horror genre. We host a séance to contact the old tech trends that are back from the dead. We even ask whether Michael Myers could land a gig in PR. (Spoiler: He probably could.)
Codewordians have the rare privilege of creating new worlds for our clients daily. Volume is a digital zine that lets us explore this moment’s zeitgeist and the topics that are near and dear to us, from satirizing vacation guides to naming trend predictions like an improv team. We get a little weird, because we are a little weird.
The Haunted Issue gets weird thanks to our contributors: Catie Keck, Molly Caccia, Lindsay Grippo, Bob Rushing, Cheyenne Wilder, Terrence B. Doyle, and Kyle Monson. I’ve always admired these writers, but now I’m a little terrified of some of them.
The Volume team made this issue a thrill ride: Tessa Lorentzen steered the haunted ship, with Andrew Lux developing doom, Maureen Barron, Monica Sarmiento, Nicholas Di Giuglio, and Noah O’Connor designing the sinister, Emmy Wallace and Alexis Koedam distributing chills, and Yasmin Belkhyr, with support from Tahirah Hairston, editing the ghastly. An absolute dream team.
Now, light some candles, charge your crystals, and blow the dust off this haunted tome. It’s time for a scary story.
