Kristen Wiig's Target Lady Stopped My Death-Scrolling In Its Tracks
So I was death-scrolling Reddit the other day and I did something I never, ever do. I watched an ad. I was about ten seconds into it, caught myself in the act, and I stopped, looked up, and thought, “What the hell am I doing? You rookie!” You see, being in advertising as long as I have, I can spot an ad on my iPad from the other room. I don’t need to read “Promoted” atop the post to know it’s an ad, it’s like a sixth sense. And sensing an ad only speeds up my scrolling tempo until the ad disappears. But here I was PROACTIVELY watching an ad on Reddit.
What was the campaign? The new “Target Lady” campaign from Target. Before I do an analysis, here’s the spot I was “engaged” with:
my fandom drew me in.
Let’s start with exactly how I was engaged in the first place. I was intimately familiar with (and always loved) Kristen Wiig’s SNL character “Target Lady.” My association with that character is 100% SNL so you could say I was duped into watching. And after I caught myself watching the ad and stopped incredulously, I then challenged the ad to be good. Could it be good? So I watched the rest and it didn’t disappoint.
Wiig picks up right where she left off with the SNL sketches. It’s the same quirk, the same cringe, the same great writing, and the same plot lines (Target Lady is so enthused about being a Target lady, she can’t help but comment on the products people are buying), the same everything. You can watch them all here.
Everybody wins.
What I love about Target bringing “Target Lady” back from a branding standpoint is that everyone wins. Consumers like me get to see more Target Lady “sketches” (I look for them now). SNL gets indirect credit for making Target Lady famous. Kristen Wiig gets a new stage for her famous character (that predates SNL, by the way), and a paycheck to go with it.
But Target gets the biggest victory. Here’s a sketch that effectively mocked Target cashiers as crazy, spastic, inappropriate women with near-mid-west accents, and Target doesn’t care. Wiig was allowed to be every bit the character she was on SNL and I find that both bold and disarming coming from Target.
so was I duped or was I engaged?
Part of me felt violated when I caught myself watching the ad the first time. Target tricked me into watching one of their commercials. But then I got over myself and just enjoyed it. They are great spots BECAUSE they originated on SNL and were, therefore, familiar. If the SNL sketches had never existed, there’s no way Target would have run these ads. They would simply be too weird.
The answer, then, is yes, I was duped. But I didn’t care. That’s good advertising.
Will Burns is a brand consultant and Founder & CEO of the revolutionary virtual-idea-generating company, Ideasicle X. He’s an advertising veteran from such agencies as Wieden & Kennedy, Goodby Silverstein, Arnold Worldwide, and Mullen. He was a Forbes Contributor for nine years writing about creativity in modern branding. Sign up for a video consultation through my Intro Page.