The instrumental version of Missy Elliot’s “Pass That Dutch” is playing through your speakers while Lindsay Lohan is walking down the halls of North Shore High School on your screen. Did you just transport in the early 2000s?
No, chances are you’ve been shown Walmart’s latest Black Friday ad.
Movie mean Girls It has been a pop culture classic since its release in 2004. Nearly 20 years later, Walmart is capitalizing on the film’s enduring popularity. mean Girls-Themed Black Friday campaign.
The series of Walmart commercials features five of the original cast members from the film reprising their roles and even includes a cameo from Missy Elliot. Instead of the infamous “Burn Book” featured in the original film, Walmart’s ads are centered around a “Deal Book” that highlights the discounts the retailer is offering this holiday season.
Today we’re explaining why this campaign is great marketing by Walmart.
Do you want to sell to Millennials? References Mean Girls
Mean Girls is a generation-defining movie for millennials. This generation was the target demographic for the film when it was initially released, and millennials have been a mainstay in pop culture ever since.
Since the film is perceived positively by many members of this generation, it is the perfect backdrop for nostalgia marketing, which is especially effective for the Millennial generation.
Nostalgia marketing takes advantage of familiarity to evoke positive emotions in potential customers. The Millennial generation came of age during a major technological revolution, which gave them a unique temperament: an analog childhood and a tech-savvy young adulthood.
This makes many Millennials particularly sensitive to nostalgia marketing if it reminds them of “simpler times” before we were all online and mean Girls Began at the end of that time period.
Selling to Millennials is especially important for mega-retailers like Walmart during the holiday season. Millennials are now the largest living group of adults in America and are expected to spend more than other generations this holiday season. In other words, if retailers want to bring in holiday sales, they need millennials to shop with them.
Taking full advantage of the remake of the film
This campaign adds to the discussion mean Girls Universe. Walmart’s Black Friday ad released a week before the first trailer for the upcoming mean Girls A remake was released, which probably wasn’t a coincidence.
The 2024 film is an on-screen presentation mean Girls musical, and although they are not formally connected, it is easy for viewers to associate the Walmart commercial with the promo for the new film. In fact, some X users expressed favoritism towards the Walmart ads on the upcoming movie’s trailer:
Although we won’t know the full impact of Walmart’s campaign until Black Friday sales figures start coming in, so far the campaign has been a well-received conversation starter for the retailer’s customer base.
