Amazon boxes deliver a fun Halloween surprise

This Halloween, Amazon is introducing a special augmented reality (AR) experience that’s fun, free, and supports social distancing. All that’s needed is a Halloween-themed Amazon box (or virtual box below), a mobile device or tablet, and a little imagination.

Halloween AR is the first experience available through the new Amazon AR Player app.

How to "carve" an AR pumpkin:

Grab a Halloween-themed box from your Amazon order (or use the print out below).
"Carve" an AR pumpkin by drawing a face on the pumpkin design.
Open the camera on your mobile device and point it directly at the QR code printed on the Amazon box or below graphic. When you have the Amazon AR Player app on your smartphone, the experience will automatically launch when you scan the box. If your phone doesn’t support scanning QR codes, type “amazonar.app” into your web browser.
Use the magic of AR to see your pumpkin come to life.

Vas Obeyesekere, Senior Industrial Designer with Amazon's Product Sustainability team, was inspired to create this Halloween experience after realizing how his favorite holiday would be impacted by COVID-19.

“As Halloween fans young and old seek things to do at home this holiday season, Amazon has created its first shipping box augmented reality experience that is fun, free, and can be launched directly from the comfort of your home," said Obeyesekere. "The activity on our Halloween-themed boxes is a great way to reuse boxes before dropping them in the recycling bin, and they underscore our commitment to sustainability with a fun twist that anyone can enjoy.”

We continue to make progress on reducing our packaging waste, and using less packaging material. Our Frustration-Free Packaging program encourages manufacturers to package their products in easy-to-open packaging that is 100% recyclable and ready to ship to customers without additional Amazon boxes. Since 2015, we have reduced the weight of outbound packaging by 33% and eliminated over 915,000 tons of packaging material, the equivalent of over 1.6 billion shipping boxes. Continually inventing and innovating with sustainability in mind is part of our commitment to The Climate Pledge—a goal to become net zero carbon by 2040. Learn more about Amazon’s commitment to sustainable packaging.

Boxes with the Halloween design began shipping to customers on October 9 and will continue throughout the month. Customers can “carve” an AR pumpkin with their boxes, download a virtual box, or use the below image to scan the code.

Amazon's augmented reality boxes include a pumpkin that customers can decorate and view in augmented reality.

This is the first of many AR experiences to come. Amazon AR experiences are featured on boxes that are made with less packaging material.