Misty Ingersol went to her office Halloween contest dressed as Fifty Shades of Grey. Her costume was a black outfit covered in gray paint samples, a literal take on the title that won first place at Diamond Realty in Louisiana in October 2021. K945’s original coverage
From the paint aisle to the office
The swatches did the work. The cards, ranging from pale gray to darker tones, made the joke visible before Ingersol had to explain it. Anyone who recognized the title of E.L. James’s novel could see how she had turned it into a costume with materials usually used to choose a wall color.
How the costume spread online
On October 29, 2021, her son Corey Jacobs shared a photo announcing that his mother had won her company’s costume contest. He shared another photo the next day showing her after the win. K945 identified Ingersol as a Shreveport realtor and reported that the costume appeared in a BuzzFeed Halloween roundup. Jacobs’s original photo link · K945’s report
The costume worked as a photo for the same reason it worked at the office. The paint cards gave people a clue they could read at a glance, and the familiar title supplied the punch line.