I didn’t realize this until I read it just now, but you know how Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Disney are having it out over the Don’t Say Gay Bill? Disney didn’t object to it until after the bill had passed.
Bud Light made a customized single can for a transgender influencer and were all like “Psych, my bad” when conservatives started boycotting.
Target made a Pride section in some of their stores and when they got angry and even violent pushback, retreated with their tails tucked between their legs.
I’m sensing a pattern here.
Look, if you’re going to show support to LGBT people, then fucking do it, corporations. Don’t let the slightest bit of pushback turn you around. It would be better for you to not even bother.
Please contact the Moderators if you want us to move this thread into the Pit.
It is not a P&E thread but it is indeed a rant. (That isn’t a bad thing, it just doesn’t belong in P&E).
OP, I read that Target was concerned about the safety and well being of the store employees after Republican psychos started making threats. Place your ire where it belongs, if you’d be so kind.
Same. I couldn’t really blame Target. Literally putting your employees’ lives in danger for the sake of a marketing campaign would be more worthy of a Pitting.
It sucks that they had to make the changes they did, and caved to domestic terrorists, but it was still the right call.
But, ya, I tend to agree with the OP. If you’re taking a stand, take a real stand. (Exception when there are real threats of violence toward public facing employees like Target.)
Bud Light was perhaps the worst hypocrite that alienated all sides. Bud sent a single customized can to a trans blogger. And that can probably just a was only a customized shrink sleeve wrapping on a generic blank aluminum can. Bud must send out thousands of these. Here’s a blog post that explains how Bud made 200,000 unique cans for the 2015 Mad Decent Block Party music festival events. Rather than even attempting at “get real” messaging, Bud took the total capitulation route and became an enabler of vocal minority bigots.
I get that companies and shareholders in general don’t want to get caught up in politics or culture wars, and can go at great lengths to avoid that. However, sometimes it’s just part of the DNA of the employees and values that make a company tick.
Target’s had a Pride section in the front of the clothing dept for years. Did they just add it in some of the shithole states and that’s why it’s now an issue?
They introduce new products each year, and this month received threats over it.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” Target said in a statement.
Target has been celebrating Pride Month for more than a decade. But this year’s collection has led to an increase in confrontations between customers and employees and incidents of Pride merchandise being thrown on the floor, Target spokesperson Kayla Castaneda said.
There were also specific new products people objected to.
While various Pride Collection products are under review, the only ones now being removed are the LGBTQ brand Abprallen, which has come under scrutiny for its association with British designer Erik Carnell.
Carnell has faced social media backlash for designing merchandise with images of pentagrams, horned skulls and other Satanic products.
Screenshots and posts on social media show that Target previously sold a $25 slogan sweater with the words “cure transphobia not trans people” and an $18 “too queer for here” tote bag.
Target is also reviewing certain transgender swimsuits and children’s merchandise, Castaneda said, but no decision on those products has yet been made.
They are facing bigger problems in the south, to nobody’s surprise.
A Fox News report earlier on Tuesday said that some Target stores in Southern states were shifting Pride-related merchandise away from the front of stores. An employee at a Target store in Arkansas told Reuters that they had shifted Pride-related swimsuits deeper into the store.
I worked in retail for years. You get treated like a disposable nobody. If on top of that, they took a stand that literally put my life in danger…? That would be extra shitty.
I repeat, they made the right decision. Exploitation of low wage retail workers is enough of a problem without adding to it.
A stand like “If you want to change our policies, just get violent; that works” is a stand that literally puts your life in danger. And the lives of lots of other people.
We had people violently opposed to wearing a mask, social distancing and observing capacity limits.
They would threaten and physically push (at least) employees and other customers. Our security folks were afraid of them, particularly because the police were generally on the assholes side. And of course our security folks have to be very careful about cultivating good relations with the police.