Kohl’s has hired Michel and Olivier Gondry, the brothers behind some of the most inventive music videos and commercials of the last three decades, to build its holiday campaign, and then handed them a 30-second slot and a store tour. “Welcome to The North Kohl’s” brings back Ellie Kemper as Kohl’s Mom and drops her into a candy-colored North Pole headquarters staffed by a crew of felt-faced elves. It is pleasant and bright. It is also a reminder of how little room a 30-second retail spot leaves for a director with ideas.
WHAT HAPPENS ON SCREEN
The spot opens on a miniature alpine village, complete with a red “The North Kohl’s” building, a toy train and painted mountains, as Kemper skis down the slope in a Fair Isle sweater and helmet. An elf greets her at a front desk, a pair of carved wooden doors swing open on the North Kohl’s sign, and Kemper announces, “Welcome to The North Kohl’s! So this is where all the holiday magic is made.”
From there it is a guided walk through the departments. In a green cozy room full of blankets, slippers and folded knits, she flops onto a cloud-shaped white sofa while elves toss throws through the air: “Cozy gifts are perfect for those who could use a little snuggle.” A glass dome reveals a Sephora at Kohl’s beauty hall with perfume bottles floating in the sky, where Kemper tests fragrances and adds, “Those are all my favorites too.” A wooden chest opens in the snow, and the tour ends in a toy room where elves hand her a robot kit and she stuffs gifts into an oversized bag. “Well, I think we’ve officially reached maximum magic,” she says. An elf at a record player answers, “No such thing,” and the Kohl’s logo closes it out.
CREDITS
Brand: Kohl’s. Campaign: “The North Kohl’s,” holiday 2026. Film: “Welcome to The North Kohl’s,” 0:30, published on Kohl’s official YouTube channel on October 26, 2026. Directors: Michel Gondry and Olivier Gondry. Talent: Ellie Kemper as Kohl’s Mom. Credits per Kohl’s corporate newsroom and Adweek, which reports the spot premiered during the first game of the World Series and that a Spanish-language version will also run. Kohl’s own announcement does not name an agency, so we do not credit one here.
THE EXECUTION
The Gondry fingerprints are there if you look for them. The village in the opening shot is a deliberately handmade miniature, the departments are built as tiny theatrical sets with arched doorways and painted backdrops, and the elves look like they wandered over from a 1960s Rankin/Bass special. The palette is disciplined: berry red for the entrance and toy room, forest green for the cozy department, midnight blue for the Sephora dome. It looks like a store designed by someone who loves pop-up books, and that is a real step up from the usual soft-focus living room most retail holiday spots default to.
Kemper is a smart choice to anchor it. She plays Kohl’s Mom with the same slightly over-caffeinated sincerity she brought to The Office and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and her delivery of “Those are all my favorites too” is the one line that sounds like a person rather than a brief. The final exchange with the record-playing elf, “No such thing,” is a tidy button that gives the elves a voice and the spot an actual joke.
WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN’T
What works: the world. The North Kohl’s is a clean, ownable idea – a store pun that doubles as a set – and the campaign plan uses it well, with “Cozy Corner” and “Hosting Headquarters” style zones carried into the stores and social. As a piece of brand architecture, the film does its job: in 30 seconds you know Kohl’s sells cozy stuff, beauty from Sephora and toys, and that the brand wants you to feel the season is under control.
What doesn’t: everything else. Once the doors open, the spot becomes a department checklist with a quip attached to each aisle. The elves are charming but they are props, scurrying around Kemper rather than doing anything that surprises us, and the Gondrys never get to pull the kind of camera trick or in-camera illusion they are hired for. Compare it to the brothers’ best commercial work and this feels like a rough sketch of an idea that was cut down for time. There is also a tension at the center of the campaign: Kohl’s is promising thoughtful, handmade magic in the film while promoting AI photo booths and an AI shopping assistant in the press release. The ad itself, to its credit, keeps that out of frame.
Then there is the competition. Holiday 2026 is already crowded with celebrity retail spots, from Walmart’s Muppets to Sephora’s Seth Rogen, and Kohl’s version is the safest of the lot. It will not offend anyone, and it will not stick with anyone either.
VERDICT
“Welcome to The North Kohl’s” is a well-built, good-natured holiday spot with a strong set, a likable lead and directors who clearly made the world look better than it needed to. But the 30-second format turns the Gondry brothers into very expensive set decorators, and the script is a store directory with jokes. It does its job as a seasonal reminder; it does not earn a second look. Rating: 3 out of 5.
