Target Reinterprets the Story of Christmas

target-scrooge.jpg

This ad for Target makes the commercialization of the holidays look downright cuddly.

It’s like a glimpse into mirror world: parents’ pupils dilate as kids spout retail propaganda in iambic pentameter. Scrooge is loved for exactly who he is. And nobody’s pretending it ain’t about the presents.

If only my childhood Christmas plays had been this relevant to the longings of our souls. Think about it: does Baby Jesus help you save on everything from Isaac Mizrahi ankle socks to vintage poster art deco? Is he as generous about parking spaces? And does he own exclusive rights to Christina Aguilera’s greatest hits?

…No? That’s what I thought.

Picture of Steve Hall

Steve Hall

RECENT ARTICLES

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

8 things people who give thoughtful gifts pay attention to all year

8 things people who give thoughtful gifts pay attention to all year

Hack Spirit

Greif and Gleason’s 1980 research on how children learn politeness routines found that young children almost never say “please” or “thank you” spontaneously, they say it because a parent prompts them with “what do you say?” dozens of times a week, meaning the reflex adults later display without thinking twice was built through years of someone else’s prompting long before it became automatic.

Greif and Gleason’s 1980 research on how children learn politeness routines found that young children almost never say “please” or “thank you” spontaneously, they say it because a parent prompts them with “what do you say?” dozens of times a week, meaning the reflex adults later display without thinking twice was built through years of someone else’s prompting long before it became automatic.

Global English Editing

8 signs your in-laws see you as their own, not just someone their child married

8 signs your in-laws see you as their own, not just someone their child married

Hack Spirit

Many adult children remember watching a father work sixty-hour weeks for decades so the family could have what he never did, then watched him die in his sixties without ever prioritizing his own happiness, and now see that same pattern quietly repeating in their own lives, under a different name.

Many adult children remember watching a father work sixty-hour weeks for decades so the family could have what he never did, then watched him die in his sixties without ever prioritizing his own happiness, and now see that same pattern quietly repeating in their own lives, under a different name.

Global English Editing

Harvard researchers had 166 undergraduates rate their own pets on qualities like thoughtful, considerate and sympathetic, and the students who felt most chronically disconnected from other people scored their pets meaningfully higher on exactly those three traits, and no others.

Harvard researchers had 166 undergraduates rate their own pets on qualities like thoughtful, considerate and sympathetic, and the students who felt most chronically disconnected from other people scored their pets meaningfully higher on exactly those three traits, and no others.

Global English Editing

University of Arizona researchers wired 79 people with a recorder sampling conversations every 12.5 minutes for four days and found the happiest had twice as many substantive conversations and a third as much small talk as the unhappiest, suggesting the discomfort was never a social deficit.

University of Arizona researchers wired 79 people with a recorder sampling conversations every 12.5 minutes for four days and found the happiest had twice as many substantive conversations and a third as much small talk as the unhappiest, suggesting the discomfort was never a social deficit.

Global English Editing