One of the wokest retailers in America, Target, has had a very bad year. The giant company has let its zeal for diversity, equity, and inclusion cloud its marketing decisions, costing it money. In an attempt to appeal to a demographic that probably already shopped at Target, the overcorrection eventually offended Christians, soccer moms, and most folks on the right. Since Republicans shop, too, they stopped spending their dollars at Target.
The reasons for the boycott and subsequent loss of revenue were many. Target mostly appealed to the “soccer mom” demographic of middle-aged women who thought themselves too good for WalMart. However, apparently oblivious to the fact that most folks don’t want a shopping trip to end up with uncomfortable questions about LGBTQ issues and pronouns from their kids, Target dove head-long into controversial marketing, and many people were quick to take action.
Target drew heat in 2023 for their “Pride Month” collection and the conspicuous placement at the front of their stores. However, the products were just as misplaced as the display. Included were kid’s swimsuits “thoughtfully fit on multiple body types and gender expressions” and propaganda books such as “The Pronoun Book” and “Bye Bye Binary,” a story about a “joyful baby” who “refuses to conform to the gender binary and instead chooses toys, colors, and clothes that make them happy.”
It isn’t hard to see why families everywhere avoided the woke retailer. Target reported falling sales for the first time in six years after the Pride Month debacle, and more questionable items were featured at Christmas, prompting one X user to post: “Wow. Just wow. You would think they would have learned from the last time. When will companies finally start to realize it? Go woke…go broke!”
Target is once again running into trouble in 2024. With the election year barely a month old and still stinging from the previous year, Target has announced they are pulling a “Black History Month” item after a viral video shockingly highlighting inaccuracies with the black-themed product.
A TikTok video has gone viral showing three important Civil Rights leaders misidentified on an educational toy. A Las Vegas high school teacher, named Tierra Espy correctly pointed out the errors and insisted the company remove the offending items. The History teacher said: “These need to be pulled off the shelves immediately. I teach U.S. History … and I noticed some discrepancies as soon as I opened this.”
The item in question was a magnetic learning activity featuring Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B. DuBois, and Booker T. Washington. Unfortunately, they all had the wrong names under them. Bendon, an Ohio-based children’s publisher, was responsible for the publishing gaffe, and Target released this statement: “We will no longer be selling this product in stores or online,” the retail giant said in a statement. “We’ve also ensured the product’s publisher is aware of the errors.”
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Obviously, Target had no malicious intent or agenda, as was the case with the previous controversies, but the optics are still terrible. Not only terrible but hilarious. There is a certain joy in seeing companies like Target and Bud Light thumb their noses at their core customers and then suffer as a result. There are too many choices in most places to blindly patronize companies that don’t share your core values, and Target found out the hard way.