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Karen O covers “Marshmallow World” in new Target holiday ad

by Hailey Colwell

November 11, 2014

This holiday season, Karen O is lending her voice to a new Target commercial featuring an updated take on the 1949 song “Marshmallow World,” written by Carl Sigman and Peter DeRose. Made famous by Dean Martin, the song is well-known to rock fans for Darlene Love's version on Phil Spector's 1963 Christmas album. Karen O's version, reportedly, will be featured in over a dozen TV spots in all.

Karen O's not seen in the video, titled Alice in Marshmallow Land: Bullseye the mascot dog and a girl who shrinks to a tiny size after eating a magical marshmallow have tea with Barbie and Leonardo (the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle), go ice skating through a red-and-white forest, and fend off an angry dinosaur with a marshmallow and a sassy snap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifvRgJMfop4

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman—who released her solo debut Crush Songs this year—is not Target’s only musician friend this winter. The Minnesota-based company is also the second-highest retailer of Taylor Swift’s new album 1989, with an estimated 410,000 copies sold in its first week of release this October.

Hailey Colwell is a journalism major at the University of Minnesota and a co-director of Theatre Corrobora.

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This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.