The Spot: Cuckoo for Christmas

Maria Bamford is back as Target's demented Black Friday superfan in Wieden + Kennedy's latest holiday ads

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GENESIS: Black Friday is lunacy—a stressful start to a stressful season. Advertisers pretend otherwise, wrapping holiday-sale messaging in anodyne platitudes about joy, love, and savings. Shoppers know better, and Target saw a chance to be honest with them. So, in 2009, the retailer and Wieden + Kennedy introduced one of the most hilariously odd advertising characters of all time: the Christmas Champ. Portrayed with frighteningly manic intensity by Maria Bamford, she's the world's biggest superfan of Christmas—and of Target, whose 2-Day Sale (Black Friday and the day after) represents her retail Super Bowl.

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