Advertising Age - September 5, 2011

THE WORK

Edited by Ann-Christine Diaz, adiaz@creativity-online.com

Creativity-Online.com has all the features of AdCritic.com, plus creative profiles, videos that go behind the work and regularly updated news. Submit your choices for best ads to Ann-Christine Diaz, Editor, Creativity, 711 Third Ave., New York, NY10017 or e-mail adiaz@creativity-online.com.

Branding,SignoftheTimes,TargetDog

It all started in 1999 when PMH creative director Dave Peterson (who steered creative throughout the partnership) decided to make the brand’s bull’s-eye logo the heart of an unabashedly playful campaign with a distinctive design sensibility. The red and white circles even made their way onto one of the brand’s most memorable representatives, the Target Dog.

DemocraticDesign

Target and PMH’s campaigns have been known to turn the average household object, from Cheerios to Windex, into gorgeous works of art.

TARGET AND

HOOKS: A LOOK BACK
KeepsGetting
Better

The work was no less dazzling when Target teamed with pop-culture icons like Sean White and Christina Aguilera—the latter appeared in this poppy comic-strip actioner.

NewYorker PETERSON MILLA

This week, Peterson Milla Hooks, Minneapolis, unveiled its
final spot for Target—a fun, Bond-like thriller that shows off
the brand’s latest collaboration with Italian fashion house
Missoni. The partnership between the agency and retailer
ended in May of this year, but no doubt was
indispensable in cementing Target’s status as a
design icon. Here, we take a look back at
some of the most memorable work
produced during the decade-
plus run.

Missoni,LibertyofLondon

Target’s patronage of great design has also led to collaborations with some of the biggest names in fashion, including Alexander McQueen, Isaac Mizrahi, Proenza Schouler, Liberty of London and, most recently, Missoni. Some of the partnerships led to more memorable eye candy, including a floral turn (for Liberty of London ) and the agency’s swan song for Target, showcasing chevron-stitched styles from Missoni.

In August of 2005, for the first time in its 80-year history, The New Yorker was sponsored by a single advertiser, Target. Imaginably, this could have been a dizzying disaster of concentric-circle overkill. But under the creative guidance of PMH, the collaboration ultimately produced a collectors-worthy edition, strewn with red-and-white-tinged works of art by 21 of the world’s finest illustrators, including Yuko Shimizu and James Jean, whose pieces are featured here, as well as Ruben Toledo, Andre Dubois Me Company and others.