Perhaps even more than Paris Hilton (which is really saying something), the “millennial icon” that has most overtly and vehemently aligned herself with “being millennial” is Lindsay Lohan. After all, when the “height” of one’s career is so tied up in three “quintessential” films that the “average” millennial grew up on—The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday and Mean Girls—why not keep milking it ad infinitum? As Lohan has been doing with just about every advertisement she’s done post-2014. While being particularly fond of incorporating Mean Girls (see: her Allbirds and Wal-Mart commercials).
And when those ads aren’t referring to that “holy trinity” of movies, they’re referring to her “party girl lifestyle” of yore by making fun of it and/or showing the contrast of how her life is now (see: her Esurance or Planet Fitness commercials for examples of each). In other words, that she’s “healthy” and, most importantly, that her complexion is much improved since she laid off the sauce (hence, being tapped for a Peter Thomas Roth commercial—that once again offers a nod to Mean Girls). Or, quite simply, started spending more money on skin care, facials and, yes, probably a bit of cosmetic surgery (despite her protests to the contrary).
All of this said, the latest thing she’s leaning into for an advertising-related gimmick is “being millennial.” More than that, being the millennial (even though, frankly, Hilary Duff tends to do that with much more, let’s say, poise, having recently chosen to make a new album [Luck… Or Something] that’s fresh rather than past-wallowing). A representative of the entire generation. As such, Chime—the non-bank banking app—has seen fit to allow her to “welcome” the younger side of millennials to thirty…for the sake of drumming up some new business from a generation that should now theoretically not only have more money, but also know how to be more financially responsible with it. As if (perhaps more of a Gen X phrase).
Timed conveniently for when Lohan herself is turning forty, a milestone she’s reached as of July 2, 2026, the main ad for, one supposes, “embracing financial stability” finds her offering “guidance” to the millennials that are turning thirty in ‘26. This supposedly “achieved” with her empty announcement, “The youngest millennials are officially…turning…thirty. Jump scare. But don’t get a fright, your thirties will change you. And that can be iconic. You’ll go to bed early, you’ll cancel plans, you’ll finally figure out what an APY means. So I’m partnering with Chime to give you the 411. It’s time to glow up. Financially.”
After this little introductory spiel, the commercial cuts (by way of an iMovie-type transition) to Lohan sitting at a desk in front of a “millennial iMac” computer (you know, the pretty kind that has a huge pop of color on it) so that she can continue to spout absolutely no financial advice whatsoever. Doing her best to hide that rather obvious fact as she “quips,” “I know change is hard. Like when we had to go from low-rise jeans to mid-rise. But put your money in a high-yield savings account and that’s the good kind of change. Growth!” There’s then another cut to her in a kitchen yammering on about “girl dinner and boy kibble” becoming “woman dinner and man kibble” thanks to getting older. Ergo, automatically transcending into someone “responsible” (though she certainly wasn’t that for most of her thirties [see: opening some sure-to-close nightclubs in Greece and dating an abusive Russian business heir [Egor Tarabasov]).
In any case, for her “grand” conclusion, Lohan opts to go with the knife-digging assertion, “So it’s true, millennials will never be in their twenties again.” A declaration that somehow leads into her making yet another reference to one of her 00s movies by adding, “But don’t be a total drama queen about it. Because we’ve got this. We burned CDs, but we’re not burning cash [she should speak for herself]. We fed our Tamagotchis, now we’re feeding our credit score. There’s nothing we can’t do! So get in loser [this Mean Girls line always apropos of nothing], we’re about to have our best era yet. Oh, and one last thing Gen Z: you’re turning thirty next year. Clock it.”
Bringing Gen Z into it is also part of the ad campaign, with Chime clearly seeking to garner a new generation of clients that seem to have no idea what a real bank is anyway (or how it would actually work to use one). Thus, in another version of the ad, Lohan is situated standing next to a display of “millennial ephemera,” including a Von Dutch-inspired trucker hat that just reads “Millennial” on it, a Bedazzled flip phone, a digital camera, a CD player, a burnt CD that says “Lindsay’s Summer Hits” on it and a framed color swatch labeled “Millennial Pink.” She then opens with, “So 1996 babies, are you millennials or are you Gen Z?… Ultimately, you do answer the phone when someone calls and that’s what makes you one of us.” Or the fact that there’s a very distinct beginning and ending year for each generation “set.”
Alas, Lohan does little to helpfully represent her own generation in a way that isn’t, that’s right, decidedly cringe (complete with whatever that fugly “split pea soup green” [not even Brat green] top she’s wearing). Particularly in yet another eighteen-second promo that presents her in a split screen with one side labeled “Millennial Edit” and the other “Gen Z Edit.” In the former, she supposedly speaks the millennial language by saying, “Millennials, the cards have been stacked against us. We still wanna YOLO, but in a house that we own. And tbh, old banks are so basic.” Her “Gen Z” interjections in between each sentence being, “The economy’s cooked. That was cringe. But Chime, it’s giving.” Though what it’s “giving,” in the end, is yet another paycheck for Lohan that was earned by doing something embarrassing and cashing in on the same period of her career repeatedly. Which seems to prove the contrary to what she’s trying to say in this ad. And that, in fact, her “best era yet” was still the 2000s.
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