Hasta La Creative!

So, JC Penney’s new back-to-school campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi has been out for a little while, and the whole thing is ripped right from The Breakfast Club (the nicer word for rip-off is “homage”). The major differences: a little more ethnicity and a new version of “Don’t You (Forget About Me).” I was 3 years old when The Breakfast Club came out in 1985. I didn’t know the film existed until I was in college, where it was included in a class on culturally significant movies for Gen X. Now, there’s more or less a decade separating me from today’s incoming high-school students. Does anyone really think they will get the reference? Hey, JC Penney, remember that scene in The Office where Steve Carell goes to this club and starts talking to this chick who is, like, way younger than him? Steve says Back to the Future (also ’85) is his favorite movie, and she says, “I guess that was before my time. How old are you again?” Congratulations, JC Penney, you’re now the old dude in the club. Maybe you’ll have an impact with the parents of some of those high-school kids. Better hope the kids actually want to shop where their parents suggest.

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers