• by Barbara Lippert , Columnist, November 18, 2024

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Yikes. Christmas is just around Thanksgiving’s corner.

Is it really the most wonderful time of the year? Can we be of good cheer?

I must say that these days some brands are really pushing that Santa envelope, in what could be a feel-bad way.

Take Target’s “Weirdly Hot Santa.” That phrase comes from a Target commercial, so at least the creatives (from Mythology) are in on the joke.

This guy is not coming down any chimneys. Perhaps he’s more suited to a pole.

So if you were expecting the red cheeks, jelly belly, and solid Ho Ho Hos we’ve come to know, then you’re out of luck.

Rather, this switched-on Santa lives in a Bruce Wayne-like holiday lair. He’s a taut, muscley dude, wearing a trim beard, tight-fitting red zip-up sweater, what seem like tight suede pants, and happenin’ ankle boots.

And then, standing atop his cranium like a monument to great hairitude is a thick, precise salt-and-pepper coif, a thing of beauty that precludes any sort of dangling pom-pommed topper. Perhaps he’s bigger on pomade.

 A GQ Santa for a hyper-masculine age, he would seem to spend more time with his Japanese hair cutter than he does directing Prancer, Dancer or Rudolf.

Oh, wait -- Kris, as we’ve come to know him in this spot titled “Born to be Kris” seems to own a few reindeer, but he’s spurned the sleigh and its hard-flying animals for a red, souped-up Ford Bronco with a vanity plate that reads SLEIGH. 

And we watch as he leaves his secret mountain chalet and peels out of his driveway in his truck to the tune of Steppenwolf’s classic “Born to be Wild.”

This song is his bad-boy mantra, accompanying him as he dashes over hill and dale and pulls into a parking lot. He hops out, affixes his name tag, “Kris K,” and heads into work—a Target store. It turns out that KK is an actual team member!

That’s also a little weird. How does that work?  You’d think he’d be an intimidating presence in the break room. Would he use the time to work on his glutes?  We’d think he’s self-admiring, but maybe he has a softer, Brawny-guy side that’s helpful to shoppers.

We do get to see him in action on the retail floor in the second spot, amusingly named “He’s Hot, But These Turkey Deals are Hotter.” It opens on a female shopper on the phone to a friend saying, “I can’t believe these turkeys are only 79 cents a pound!”  She looks up, and there stands Kris—a red-sweatered colossus among the Butterballs.

 ‘Let me guess,” he says. “You don’t believe in Santa, either.”

Turkey in wagon, she moves away and tells her phone friend, “Did you hear that? It’s Santa Claus, and he’s weirdly hot!”

 She seems shaken and stirred. That’s a new way to head into the Yuletide season.

But the spots are surely attention-getting and clever, packing messages for weary women , interested men, and a host of those remaining. 

There’s also a more traditional holiday spot aimed at children, with a boy going into a magical store with his mom and finding a grove of lit, decorated Christmas trees, an igloo, a real polar bear who snores, and other fanciful things.

The music is Griff’s cover of “A World of Pure Imagination “ from “Willy Wonka.” Griff has a voice that’s like gossamer, like the huge red and white ribbon that the boy slides on in the store. Apparently, the kids on TikTok are crazy about Griff, and this commercial.

Altogether, Target  is killlin’ it for the holidays -- without the jolly holly,  but bringing the buzz.