Get out your membership cards. The last Blockbuster store in the US is planning to run an ad during the Super Bowl.
No, a bunch of late fees didn’t suddenly appear in its bank account. The store, located in Bend, Oregon, won’t be buying a seven-milliion-dollar TV spot. Instead, it’s streaming on Instagram. It will also play it on a VHS tape at the store, then will make the tape available for rent at $2 per day.
The store is no doubt counting on media (like this site) to pick up on the plans, thus saving several million dollars.
“We are doing a fun, retro-style commercial that we will be releasing during the Big Game. We are featuring it during halftime in the store and on social media,” store owner Sandi Harding told Oregon Live in an email.
The store has been teasing the spot on Instagram in the lead-up to the Big Game. One post featured a giant cockroach looming over the store amidst a desolate, rubble-strewn landscape, symbolic of its lone survivor status.
“Is the world coming to an end or is Blockbuster releasing its first commercial in a really, really long time? Yes. See you on 2/12,” the post reads.
A show about the last Blockbuster store in America was canceled by Netflix after one season.
From creator, writer, executive producer and showrunner Vanessa Ramos, Blockbuster starred Park, Melissa Fumero, Tyler Alvarez, Madeleine Arthur, Olga Merediz, JB Smoove, and Kamaia Fairburn. It followed Timmy Yoon (Park), an analog dreamer living in a 5G world. And after learning he is operating the last Blockbuster Video in America,
