What do you get when people from MTV, Sears and High School Musical join forces?

They say, “summer blockbuster”. We say, longest commercial ever.

The American Mall, the network’s new musical, centers around a Utah mall that’s “a home away from home for teens everywhere”. High school kids work in the mall, shop at Sears, wear clothes from Sears, carry bags from Sears and just really love Sears. And, just in case you don’t get it, there will be co-branded commercials during the TV movie that tell you to shop at Sears.

The actors, playing the kids who love Sears, will also appear in Sears’ online ‘lookbooks’ and at screenings across the country to promote Sears.

Sears hopes to set the tone for back to school shopping by making kids all over the country ask their moms to take them to Sears.

It actually kind of sounds like what Sex and the City did for brands like Manolo and Dolce minus the teensiest bit of subtlety.