I love Target commercials. I have never been able to figure out why exactly, but I find them utterly charming and classy.

I can tell you what I do know: They have great music and production values. Helvetica titles. Modelesque multicultural actors. You never see a price, store interior, or employee-- they emphasize brands: those of products, designers, and Target itself.

The formula seems simple and innocent enough, yet it forms a gestalt that my lizard brain finds irresistible. Suddenly I’m pushing around a red shopping cart full of limited edition designer sheets, a case of Gatorade, and a giant decorator wall clock.

I know what triggers this behavior, so I am careful to watch for the signs. Hence, I was quick to notice when the latest Target commercial seemed to mark a change in tactics.

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I’m very late to the party with this one, but while shopping online recently, I noticed that Wal-Mart has updated its brand. The response so far seems cautious. Folks seem to like the new color scheme, the trendier font, and sentence case hyphen-less wordmark, but there is considerable confusion over the new glyph that replaced the five-pointed star in the logo.

What is that thing? Some people think it’s a sun, or maybe an asterisk. Others are quick to point out its resemblance to a sphincter. Quite a range of interpretation!

It’s an unfortunate bit of abstraction, to be sure, but I think all the consternation about what the logo looks like misses the bigger question of why?

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