--- title: Google's Halloween Doodle Celebrates Being Yourself description: Google's animated Halloween video follows Jinx the lonely ghost on a journey of discovering no disguises are needed to make new friends canonical: https://time.com/5003440/google-doodle-halloween-2017/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-31T03:26:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:26.529Z og:title: Google's Halloween Doodle Celebrates Being Yourself og:description: Don't be spooked: Google's new Doodle unmasks an important lesson og:url: https://time.com/5003440/google-doodle-halloween-2017/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf186500836ee150e/6988e3e786f68e1c146e709e/google-doodle-halloween.png?branch=production&width=391&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 391 og:image:height: 220 og:image:alt: Google Doodle Halloween og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google's Halloween Doodle Celebrates Being Yourself twitter:description: Don't be spooked: Google's new Doodle unmasks an important lesson twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf186500836ee150e/6988e3e786f68e1c146e709e/google-doodle-halloween.png?branch=production&width=391&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google Doodle Celebrates Halloween With This Ghostly Animated Tale > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: 7 Last Minute Halloween Costumes [Watch (HLS stream): 7 Last Minute Halloween Costumes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Z6xKf4L7.m3u8) (2:05)  _Published 2017-10-27. 7 cheap, last minute halloween costumes that will get you attention at the halloween party._ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Oct 31, 2017 3:26 AM UTC  Google celebrates Halloween with a new doodle. Google celebrates Halloween with a new doodle. Google by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Oct 31, 2017 3:26 AM UTC Google’s [Halloween Doodle](https://www.google.com/doodles/halloween-2017) this year animates an ordeal that has haunted us all: the costume dilemma. Jinx the lonely ghost is caught in the clutches of costume anxiety, unable to pick which outfit is best for the Monster Mash. Should Jinx be a witch? A mummy? An astronaut? A bat? Or a pirate? Dying to get it right and fit in with the trick-or-treat crew, the lonely ghost undergoes a few dreadful episodes of lost attire and mis-wrapped mummification. After much hocus pocus, the frightfully lonely ghost slips back into the night wearing a sheet as a disguise to hide embarrassment. But soon, Jinx’s sheet is spirited away by the wind. Jinx discovers there is no need to be spooked however, as the trick-or-treat gang accepts the unmasked ghost as a new friend. Google says initially it had thought of a storyline bringing back last year’s mischievous Momo the cat, who would dress up as a ghost only to be entranced by a real one. But the creators decided the romantic plot was better suited to Valentine’s Day. Instead, they settled on Jinx and a meaningful story of not being spooked out of being yourself. “In the end, Jinx finds wearing a disguise is no match for being yourself,” Google says. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5003440/google-doodle-halloween-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5003440/google-doodle-halloween-2017/"},"headline":"Google Doodle Celebrates Halloween With This Ghostly Animated Tale","datePublished":"2017-10-31T03:26:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:26.529Z","description":"Amid all the ghosts, goblins and mummies, Google's Halloween Doodle unmasks an important lesson","url":"https://time.com/5003440/google-doodle-halloween-2017/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Google","Google Doodle","halloween","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf186500836ee150e/6988e3e786f68e1c146e709e/google-doodle-halloween.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf186500836ee150e/6988e3e786f68e1c146e709e/google-doodle-halloween.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Google Doodle Halloween","caption":"Google celebrates Halloween with a new doodle.","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5003440/google-doodle-halloween-2017/","name":"Google Doodle Celebrates Halloween With This Ghostly Animated Tale"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"7 Last Minute Halloween Costumes","description":"7 cheap, last minute halloween costumes that will get you attention at the halloween party.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Z6xKf4L7/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-10-27T19:44:35.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Z6xKf4L7.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5003440/google-doodle-halloween-2017/","duration":"PT2M5S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5003440/google-doodle-halloween-2017/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```