Those who have opted-in to get e-mails from Kohl's are used to a steady barrage of X percent off messages from the retailer. Just about everything that comes from the chain shouts sale, sale, sale. That's what makes the chain's "Wink of Pink" commercial unusual.
The spot was created by Peterson Milla Hooks, an agency that worked with Target from the 1990s until 2011. It is also the agency that created Kohl's "Holiday Surprise" Christmas commercial that showed a couple decorating the home of an elderly neighbor.
According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report, it was the positive reaction to the Christmas spot that made the chain realize it could do brand advertising in addition to its typical sales promotion pitches.
"It's all in the appropriate doses," Michelle Gass, Kohl's chief customer officer, told the Journal Sentinel, "but sprinkling in that side — call it the heart of the brand while you're still doing the head of the brand — is something that we saw really work for us during that holiday time period."