Mathew Cullen Directs Taylor Swift for Target

The final spot in Mathew Cullen's music video-inspired ad campaign for Target has premiered, featuring Taylor Swift and her single "Red." Cullen and Motion Theory worked directly with Target's inHouse creative team to develop the campaign, which promotes an initiative where best-selling artists launch Target-specific versions of their new albums with exclusive tracks.

 

 

Jon Baugh, Creative Manager at Target's inHouse Creative Studio, has collaborated with MTh on three previous projects. "Mathew is a great storyteller brimming with brightness, and once we planted the seed, he was excited about the concept potential. The Target inHouse creative team flew out for a meeting to riff on ideas for this campaign, and what we love about the MTh squad is that they bring such a great collective of smart thinkers along for the ride--writers, designers, technologists and visual effects artists. There was a lot of ideating that came out of that first mind meld that ended up in the final spots. We developed the framework for this Target-themed space where artists can perform and dwell--and Mathew and the MTh team took it to a whole new level that not only incorporated the Target aesthetic, but was also very mindful of tailoring each spot concept to authentically match the artist's personas, style and song."



 

In this latest spot, Taylor Swift enters a white-walled foyer, tugging at a loose piece of wallpaper that unfurls into a bright red ribbon carrying her into a large white room. She pulls a curtain aside revealing towering windows in a space surrounded by red silk walls and swirling bands of ribbon. Taylor's look and movements convey a classic Hollywood aesthetic, and the spot plays off of both the song's title and Target's distinct color palette to bathe the visuals in red.



 

View the spot below:

 

 

Credits

 

Client: TARGET


Spot: “Taylor Swift”



Production Company: MTh


Director: Mathew Cullen


DP: Shawn Kim


Executive Producer: Javier Jimenez


Producer: Rob Newman



Post Production Company: Mirada


Head of VFX and Animation: John Fragomeni


Executive Producer: Patrick Nugent


VFX Supervisor: Michael Shelton


Creative Directors: Kaan Atilla, Francisco Ruiz Velasco


Editors: Alan Chimenti


Post Producer: Leighton Greer


Production Manager/HR Director: Tina Van Delden


Production Coordinator: Derek Johnson



Flame: Mark Renton, Michael Vaglienty