The iconic cast of Mean Girls has come back together again.
Walmart shared an advertisement – featuring three of the films’s original stars, Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, and Lacey Chabert – on 1 November, leading up to the announcement of the brand’s Black Friday deals. Although the three stars were in the commercials, one of the leads of Mean Girls, Rachel McAdams, was absent.
In the beloved 2000s film, Lohan played high school student Cady Heron, who befriends a group of popular classmates – Gretchen Wieners (played by Chabert), Karen Smith (played by Seyfried) and Regina George (played by McAdams). However, as Cady gets close to the elite girl group, referred to as “The Plastics,” she makes multiple attempts to bring Regina’s high school status down.
Walmart’s advertisement begins with Chabert reprising her role as Gretchen, as she could be seen picking up her daughter from school – in order to mock a scene from Mean Girls when Regina picks Cady up to go shopping. “Get in sweetie, we’re going deal shopping,” she quipped.
In the background, Lohan could be heard reprising her role as Cady, while making a reference to one of “The Plastics” rules about wearing a certain colour to school. “At North Shore, some things never change,” she said. “On Wednesdays, we still wear pink.”
The advertisement went on to show Seyfried reprising her role as Karen, who did a reiteration of her notorious weather report in Mean Girls. “Karen Smith here with the weather,” she said. “There’s a 30 per cent chance that it’s already Wednesday.”
In the clip, Cady then revealed that she was now a guidance counsellor at her old high school, where she’s “still getting schooled”. She then tried to use an iconic word from Mean Girls, “grool” – a combination of great and cool – with two high school students, who appeared confused.
The ad switched to a shot of Gretchen watching her daughter and their friends filming a dance video, before the mother responded with one of her signature lines in the movie. “This is going to be so fetch!” she said, before her child hit back with: “Stop trying to make fetch happen, Mom. It’s not going to happen.”
The advertisement also included a recreation of the Winter Talent Show scene in the movie, but this time, Cady, Gretchen, and Karen were sitting in the audience. While standing behind a projector, Daniel Franzese – who played Damian, one of Cady’s friends who hated “The Plastics” in the film – also made an appearance. The students performed the dance to “Jingle Bell Rock” from Mean Girls, with Gretchen standing up and filming it.
As Cady quipped that “girl world was at peace,” she noted that “deal world was just getting started”. She and Damian were then seen in the hallway of the school as students were in the midst of an angsty brawl over Walmart deals – in order to mock the fight that occurred in Mean Girls after Regina leaked her “Burn Book”.
Following the release of the ad, many people on X, formerly known as Twitter, went on to praise the reunion of the three actors. However, some also questioned why McAdams was noticeably missing from the commercial.
“Now how does a Mean Girls Walmart commercial look better than the musical they’re putting out???” one quipped, referring to the new Mean Girls movie that will be released in January 2024. “A budget! A wardrobe stylist! A cast! Everyone looks so good! Rachel McAdams said um chile anyways.”
“You want to talk about advertising. This is a first-class example by Walmart,” another added, while a third wrote: “Almost two decades and they’re still the most iconic characters in the history of cinema.”
In a statement shared with E! News, the former co-stars opened up about the opportunity they had to work together again. “It was so nice being back together after all these years,” Lohan said. “It was great catching up with everyone.”
Chabert also added: “It was wonderful to spend the day with Amanda and Lindsay. It was so much fun to reminisce and be together again."
