I wrote a review last week about Target's Black Friday ad that featured comedian Maria Bamford preparing for her holiday shopping as if she were preparing for a prize fight. Predictably, I hated the commercial, and judging from some of the responses I received, so did many Commercial Grade readers.
Obviously I wasn't very excited when I saw the follow-up to the Black Friday commercial, in which Bamford once again reprises her role as the crazy Christmas shopping lady, and once again is nearly intolerable. This ad, however, is different to me and I'll explain why.
Note: This commercial is actually from the 2010 holiday season, but Target is running it in heavy rotation this season as well.
Since I was so enraged by the Black Friday Target ad, it might be surprising that I'm willing to subject myself to another in the series.
The truth is, I like reviewing the bad commercial even more than the good ones. Also, I felt obligated to do this review since ignoring it would make me feel incomplete. It would be like watching the first 4 Twilight movies and then skipping the 5th one. You know it's going to suck like all the others, but you just have to see for yourself.
In this installment of "Crazy Ass Target Lady Goes Shopping," we see Maria Bamford's character entering the Christmas greeting card aisle with that insane expression of glee pasted on her face. She starts recording a chunk of a Christmas song into one of those cards that allows you to record your own greeting, and subsequently goes through the whole aisle recording different parts of the song so that when they are all played in unison they comprise the entire song.
This is actually not a terrible premise for a commercial. For example, if this premise were extended to, say, recording Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the same fashion, I would probably think it was the coolest fucking thing on earth. Unfortunately, the premise is used for a shitty Christmas song and is performed by a really annoying character.
 |
| This is what I imagine Satan's facial expression to always be. |
As she finishes her melodic masterpiece, she freezes her face in a look of sheer lunacy. I have to give Maria credit; I'm sure this role is intended to be annoying, insane and awful to behold, and she absolutely nails that in her interpretation of the character. She is pretty damned convincing.
And you know what? After looking at this commercial from that perspective, I don't hate it quite so bad. Don't get me wrong, it's still an annoying fucking ad, but I can at least appreciate the talent involved in making a character that is so easy to hate and that people can collectively be exasperated by. It sure as hell doesn't make me want to go buy anything at Target - if anything, it makes me want to avoid shopping in stores so that I don't encounter any crazy assholes - but it does have a good performance and an interesting (if misused) idea.
Final Grade: D+
*********
*********
I absolutely LOVE the crazy Target Christmas lady & look forward to future installments. She is annoyingly obsessed with Christmas & I think that's the objective. For all of the reasons you hate her, she's accomplished her goal, She personifies how insane we've become with the entire season & brings humor to what has turned into shopping mania & not the true meaning of the season. What a shame you don't get it. What else are you missing out on because of your lack of understanding, hmmm? They don't pay you to do these reviews....do they?
ReplyDelete