Someone needs to unplug Old Navy

Posted Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at 3:32 PM Central
Last updated Wednesday, November 28, 2012 at 3:46 PM Central

by John Couture

Oh Chevy, my how the mighty has fallen.

Just last week, Chevy Chase made waves by leaving his TV show Community abruptly and making sure to burn all of the bridges on his way off the Paramount lot.

He was quoted as calling his sitcom "the lowest form of television" and that it's akin to "being relegated to hell and watching 'Howdy Doody' for the rest of your life." Yikes!

I hate to quibble with a screen legend like Mr. Chase but there's at least one more ring on Dante's Hollywood version of hell and that's selling out your past for a measly few bucks in a commercial. You might recall that Matthew Broderick revisited his Ferris Bueller persona for a Super Bowl commercial this year.

But, this travesty takes the cake.

Old Navy should be ashamed for creating this horribly crude "homage" to Christmas Vacation as part of their "Plug in the Pop" promotion. This "commercial" does not inspire me to want to shop in their stores, in fact it's worse than that. This blatant money grab is so transparent that I may just forgo watching Christmas Vacation this holiday season, an annual tradition since 1990.

Trust me, it's that bad. Take a look.

If it wasn't bad enough that Chevy Chase is literally throwing away any credibility he had left as an actor, but apparently Beverly D'Angelo and Juliette Lewis had nothing better to do that day than serve as glorified extras for the commercial. And speaking of extras, what's up with the hodgepodge of extended Griswalds?

I know that Randy Quaid doesn't have the good sense to pass up this "opportunity" and I'm pretty sure his schedule is wide open. This is the man who headlined Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure.

Yeah, that exists.

And while we're on the subject of unnecessary sequels, I don't know what upsets me more this holiday season: this commercial or this piece of dog excrement.

No really, it is as bad as you can possibly imagine.

At least Johnny Galecki had the good sense to avoid this commercial like the plague. I guess some of the smarts from his TV show is rubbing off.

If this "homage" piece weren't insulting enough, Old Navy actually made a Spanish language version in which they didn't use any of the cast from Christmas Vacation. I don't know what is more absurd, seeing Clark Griswald struggle with his lights yet again or watching some young, hip Hispanic version of Clark do the same.

I mean come on, haven't we progressed past the point of overloading circuits and plugging lights into a massive extension cord? If we can create the display below, I think it's time for Clark Griswald to get with the times.

Sadly, that's not the only one out there.