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Spirit Halloween
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.
The setup
Watch on YouTube
Watch onYouTube
The premise
Here’s the bit.
In this pre-taped commercial parody, upbeat Spirit Halloween staff pitch the seasonal chain as a lifeline for struggling towns, moving into abandoned big-box stores, a former AutoZone and newly closed local businesses. Community liaison Lauren Ashman and her colleagues brag about rash-inducing wigs, disposable fog machines and legally dodgy knockoff costumes, celebrate the six-week jobs they give to creepy seasonal hires, and show a pop-up opening within minutes of a bookstore closing. A girl hoping for a Taylor Swift costume gets a cheap imitation, and the ad closes by promising the store will be gone on November 1 with its stock in a dumpster.
The funny people
Meet the cast. 8
Say it with us
Highly quotable.
"This isn't Taylor Swift." "And neither are you."
What used to be a condemned AutoZone where a murder happened is once again a thriving business where a murder happened.
"tweaked just enough to avoid a lawsuit"
By creating six-week jobs for some of America's hardest-hit perverts.
Behind the scenes
The people who made it.
Christopher Werner
Director
A little extra
Notes from the archive.
Spirit Halloween responded on social media two days after the premiere with a mock costume package for an "irrelevant 50-year-old TV show."
Script
Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors. Speaker labels are inferred.
- 00:00
Lauren Ashman
times may be good on Wall Street but on Main Street communities are struggling closed stores shuttered businesses empty parking lots when hard times hit it's easy to feel like no one cares but help is on the way because when others leave we show up
- 00:24
Lauren Ashman
we don't see a dead-end town
- 00:26
Michael Longfellow
we don't see an abandoned Kmart
- 00:29
Chloe Fineman
we see a spirit
- 00:31
a spirit Halloween
- 00:33
Lauren Ashman
since 1983 spirit Halloween has been helping our struggling communities by setting up shop in every vacant building in the country for six weeks and then bouncing
- 00:48
Michael Longfellow
and thanks to us what used to be a condemned auto zone where a murder happened is once again a thriving business where a murder happened
- 00:56
Chloe Fineman
we're here providing vulnerable communities with the things they need most wigs that give you a rash single-use fog machines and costumes of famous characters tweaked just enough to avoid a lawsuit
- 01:10
Lauren Ashman
but it's not just empty buildings we're investing in it's people by creating six-week jobs for some of America's hardest-hit perverts
- 01:19
Sketchy Employee
hello before I ring you up are Are you over 18 years old?
- 01:25
Customer
No.
- 01:25
Sketchy Employee
So I am not legally allowed to talk to you, so let me grab one of my associates to help you out, okay? I'm sorry. We can be good, though.
- 01:34
Lauren Ashman
And the best part is, we're able to help struggling areas in real time by stocking, staffing, and opening a new location in minutes.
- 01:45
Chloe Fineman
Spirit Halloween. We're not just helping communities, we're also making dreams come true.
- 01:50
Customer
Excuse me. Do you have a Taylor Swift costume?
- 01:53
Chloe Fineman
You bet.
- 01:56
Customer
This isn't Taylor Swift.
- 01:57
Chloe Fineman
And neither are you.
- 01:59
Chloe Fineman
Spirit Halloween. When you need us, we'll be here. For six weeks.
- 02:06
Michael Longfellow
Because on November 1st, we're gone. And all this junk will be in a dumpster.
- 02:10
Michael Longfellow
Spirit Halloween. Coming and going soon.
The rabbit hole continues
One more couldn’t hurt.
More from across the archive.
