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SNL's Spirit Halloween Ad: "Setting Up Shop in Every Vacant Building in the Country"
"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."
You've probably already spotted it in your town, that (literal) sign that Spooky Season has officially started: The orange Spirit Halloween banner giving a new face to a local shuttered businesses.
The Saturday Night Live Season 50 premiere parodied Spirit Halloween's habitual takeover of empty storefronts, in a faux commercial for the seasonal shop.
"Times may be good on Wall Street, but on Main Street, communities are struggling. Closed stores, shuttered businesses, empty parking lots," said Spirit Halloween community liaison Lauren Ashman (cast member Heidi Gardner) in the ad's intro. "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."
"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," Ashman continued, as she walked through the aisles of a bustling Spirit store.
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SNL's "Spirit Halloween" commercial is scarily accurate
"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," said a Spirit Halloween employee played by Chloe Fineman.
In the commercial, the owner of a local bookstore has closed his business, hanging a sign thanking customers for "20 amazing years."
But before he even got to his car, he turned around to find his beloved bookstore has already been transformed into a Spirit Halloween — which is exactly what it feels like when a Spirit suddenly appears.
"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," said Ashman in a voiceover, as the man shrugged and walked back inside.
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Spirit will be there for you — but only for six weeks, "because on November 1, we're gone and all this junk will be in a dumpster," warned another Spirit employee (Michael Longfellow).
Like a scary star, Spirit Halloweens burn bright and fast — but don't worry, the store will always be back next year, and most likely in a different location.
Watch SNL's "Spirit Halloween" sketch above, and catch new episodes of Saturday Night Live on NBC and Peacock, streaming next-day on Peacock.
