Lady Gaga and Doechii serving high fashion looks for a Devil Wears Prada sequel soundtrack sounds like a recipe for an iconic music video moment. And 'Runway' delivers on paper - colorful, campy, full of vogueing and fierce poses, it's exactly the kind of visual you'd expect from a song about transforming dance floors into runways.
So why does a chunk of the internet think it looks like a Target commercial?
The disconnect nobody expected
According to Fast Company, the comments section under Popcrave's tweet about the video filled up quickly with people making the same observation - that despite all the high-fashion intentions, something about the aesthetic read more 'big box retail campaign' than 'fashion week moment.'
It's a funny and surprisingly specific critique. Target ads, particularly in recent years, have leaned into bright, inclusive, energetic visuals with diverse casts, upbeat choreography, and a kind of aspirational-but-accessible vibe. The irony here is that this aesthetic has become so polished and recognizable that when actual high-fashion content hits some of the same visual notes, people's brains make the connection immediately.
What this says about the current visual landscape
There's something genuinely interesting happening here beyond just internet pile-ons. The line between prestige creative work and commercial advertising has been blurring for a while now. Brands have gotten better at borrowing the language of art, and sometimes art ends up accidentally speaking the language of brands right back.
It doesn't help that the music video format itself - especially for pop releases tied to major film projects - tends to be highly produced, choreography-forward, and visually clean in ways that can overlap with how a retailer might want to present itself to the world.
The 'Runway' situation is a good reminder that aesthetic is context-dependent. A look or a vibe doesn't carry meaning on its own - it gets shaped by where you've seen it before. If your visual vocabulary has been trained on a decade of very good Target ads, certain combinations of color, movement, and styling are going to trigger that association whether you want them to or not.
Camp is complicated
Camp in particular is tricky territory. When it works, it's subversive and knowing. When the execution doesn't quite land, it can tip into something that feels more like a cheerful brand activation than a genuine artistic statement. Gaga has always lived in that tension, which is part of what makes her interesting - but it also means the stakes are higher when the balance shifts.
Whether the video is actually great and people are just being contrarian online, or whether the Target comparison is pointing at something real about the execution, is ultimately up to you to decide. Either way, 'Runway' has achieved something: people are talking, and that's never nothing.
