Can you imagine a world where Mean Girls meets Gladiator?
Well, you no longer have to dream.
Today, Paramount+ debuted a new spot, the second one in the streamer’s Find Your Mountain multi-platform marketing campaign, which was launched to highlight the platform’s film offerings.
The ad spoofs two of Paramount+’s biggest movies over the past year: 2024’s Mean Girls and Gladiator II.
In the 60-second spot, created by Droga5 and directed by Traktor, Reneé Rapp reprises her role as Regina George from the 2024 Mean Girls film, but this time she plays the empress who decides the gladiators’ fate.
Meanwhile, Daniel Franzese from the original 2004 Mean Girls film makes a cameo as his character Damian shouting the classic “She doesn’t even go here!” line.
Rapp told ADWEEK that working on the campaign was “unhinged,” but in “the best way.”
“I don’t think anyone’s ever thought, ‘What if Regina George met a Roman gladiator?,’ but now that it exists, I kind of love it,” Rapp said. “Mean Girls already has drama, and Gladiator just adds swords and blood. It’s a weirdly perfect combo.”
The first ad that launched in the Find Your Campaign debuted in March and merged together the worlds of Yellowjackets and Survivor. Paramount+ plans to roll out more star-studded spots in the coming months. The new creative direction offers a deeper, more personal approach, according to the company.
“We wanted to highlight our movie offering on Paramount+ in an unexpected way by bringing together these two beloved fan-favorite franchises in a blockbuster showdown,” said Terry Minogue, evp of creative marketing at Paramount Streaming. “Paramount+ has something for every movie lover — from iconic classics to modern hits. We’re thrilled for fans to experience this epic mashup of the Mean Girls and Gladiator films that reminds us that ‘what we do in life, echoes in the Burn Book.’”
According to Paramount, Gladiator II ranked as the No. 1 movie in active subscriber households during the first quarter of this year. The first Gladiator film ranked as the first library movie during the same time period.
