It’s been all over the TV in the last two weeks, and discussions online seem kind of split on whether it’s terrible or well-done, on-the-money or completely missing the point… it’s the new JC Penny’s Back to School commercial featuring a one-minute remake of “The Breakfast Club”.  If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a video clip of the spot as it’s airing on TV:

As much as ’80s fans will (justly) proclaim their love for The Breakfast Club, the question is whether the high school kids shown in the commercial have ever even seen it.  It used to play on (hilariously badly edited) TV versions all the time, but those days are gone.  It’s hard to imagine kids even being that excited by a rock-updated cover of “Don’t You Forget About Me” (maybe the worst part of the commercial?). Sure, it’s targeting the parent who will be buying the clothes for their kids, so maybe it’s being pretty subtle in who it really appeals to, but in other ways it seems like a bad nostalgia cash-in. 

(And if it is targeting the parents, perhaps JC Penny and their ad agency forgot that those kids are in detention!)

What do you think?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 3:21 pm and is filed under TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.