The calendar has not yet turned to October, but Target has already experienced the kind of autumn chill that no retailer wants to feel.
The company pulled a children's Halloween costume from its shelves and website this week after customers pointed out that a bodysuit being sold under the cheerful name "Kids' Glows Under Blacklight Circus Clown Halloween Costume Bodysuit" bore an unfortunate resemblance to blackface imagery. The costume, priced at $25, was part of Target's Hyde & Eek! seasonal line, which has been a fixture of the retailer's Halloween merchandise strategy for several years.
"We know we got this wrong," the company said in a statement, adding that the costume was "especially hurtful for our Black guests, team members and partners." Target said it was examining how the product made it through what one assumes is a review process designed to prevent exactly this sort of outcome. (One assumes.)
The company promised that removing the costume was "an important first step" and that it would work to ensure such an error would not recur — the kind of institutional pledge that tends to appear in corporate statements after the damage has already scrolled across several million social media feeds.
A Target spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment, which is perhaps understandable given that there is not much more to say.
The episode arrives during what has otherwise been a strong period for the Minneapolis-based retailer. Target reported net sales of $26.5 billion in its most recent quarter, up more than 5 percent from the previous year, with net income of $1.88 billion — a figure that includes nearly $1 billion in tariff refund benefits.
None of which, of course, makes a Halloween costume any easier to explain.
Original story published in campaignlive.com: "‘We know we got this wrong’: Target pulls ‘offensive’ Halloween costume following backlash | Campaign US"