A majority of Halloween shoppers are seeking out film-related costumes for their children, with the garb of Elsa from Disney's super hit movie "Frozen" being the most popular choice, according to a new report.
Although tasteless Ebola costumes are aplenty, parents feel their children would be better off replicating a film character. This might indicate why seven of the 15 most-searched costumes are film-related, reported Forbes.
Besides Elsa's, other popular Halloween costumes include that of zombies, Ninjas, vampires, pirates, clowns, witches, Batman, and Maleficent among others, Forbes reported, citing data obtained by e-commerce site search specialists SLI Systems.
SLI Systems came out with the data after tracking more than 80 million searches across 17 websites selling Halloween costumes.
As for why Ebola costume did not make it to their list, Tim Callan, chief marketing officer at SLI Systems, told the outlet: "Certainly, Ebola has been in the news the entire time we measured. My intuition is that a majority of these searches were actually for costumes for kids."
Meanwhile, sales of Ebola-themed Halloween costume has been picking up, and American retailer Brands On Sale has so far sold "hundreds" of men's white Ebola containment suit costumes. The costume has drawn a lot of flak, but its chief executive Johnathon Weeks is making no apologies.
"We can barely keep them in stock," Mr Weeks told AFP over telephone, adding that people need to relax and not take everything seriously, reported The Sydney Morning Herald.
"When Michael Jackson died, everybody wanted to be 'Thriller', and when Heath Ledger died, everyone wanted to be the Joker from the Batman superhero franchise," he said. "America and the rest of the world need to lighten up. Halloween is the one day of the year when you can dress up and be anybody you want."
The Ebola costume comes with a face shield, breathing mask, safety goggles and latex gloves, and the according to a blurb on the company's website, "The short dress and chic gas mask will be the talk of Milan, London, Paris and New York as the world's fashionistas seek global solutions to hazmat couture."
