Classic Movie, Commercial Sequel
Just as a classic pop song can be repurposed into a commercial jingle, so too can a well-loved movie be invoked in a commercial to sell product. And one very common way this can be done is to create a commercial that echoes or even presents itself as a sequel to that beloved film.
Many are first (and often only) broadcast during the Super Bowl.
Examples of Classic Movie, Commercial Sequel include:
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off has had several:
- Matthew Broderick recreated key moments from the film in a two-and-a-half-minute megacommercial for the Honda CR-V entitled "Matthew's Day Off", broadcast during the 2012 Super Bowl.
- In 2017, Stranger Things star Joe Keery recreated Ferris' climactic run home for Domino's Pizza. Keep an eye out for a cameo by Alan Ruck as Cameron Frye.
- In 2020, Liftmaster recreated a scene to pitch its smart garage systems -- again with a cameo by Alan Ruck.
- In 2018, Macaulay Culkin recreated his role in Home Alone for Google Assistant.
- In 2019, E.T. returned to visit his friend Elliott, now grown up with his own family, in a four-minute minifilm to advertise Xfinity.
- Winona Ryder reprised her role as Kim Boggs from Edward Scissorhands in the 2021 commercial "ScissorHandsFree", the tale of Edward's son Edgar (played by Timothée Chalamet, and how a Cadillac LYRIQ with a self-driving feature brings him happiness.
- Mike Myers and Dana Carvey recreated Wayne's World for a 2021 Super Bowl ad for Uber Eats.
- In 2018, the American-born son of Crocodile Dundee visited Australia for the first time in Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home, a Tourism Australia ad inspired by the film and presaged by a series of faux trailers designed to make it appear a Crocodile Dundee film sequel was in the works.
- Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad recreated Jack Nicholson's infamous turn in The Shining in a 2020 Mountain Dew commercial.
- Somehow, a Jeep commercial based on Groundhog Day and starring Bill Murray seems uncannily familiar.
- For the 2010 Super Bowl, HomeAway.com showed a trailer for a mini-movie follow-up on the National Lampoon's Vacation series called Hotel Hell Vacation, with Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo reprising their respective roles of Clark and Ellen Griswold. The film can be viewed here.