The managerials running Target made a show of ditching its diversity and inclusion programs to please Donald Trump. Unfortunately for the company, Target has a distinctive customer base at odds with those politics: foot traffic is down sharply in an ongoing boycott and the company's share price has slumped by nearly a third. The outcome of its latest round of corporate marketing risk-calibration webinars? They're still doing Pride Month, but so invisibly that it suggests a desire not to be seen.
Check out this year's Pride hoodie, as spotted by Ben Siemons on Bluesky. If you look very closely at the drawstrings in the screenshot above, you might notice the phrase "Out and Proud" in colors strategically chosen to evoke the Pride Flag without quite being them.
"Buy a Target Pride scarf that's so vague you're not sure if it's describing being gay or a gardener," Siemons writes.
My favorite is this tote bag. It's as if they assembled an army of marketing PhDs to calculate the precise semiotic minimum of plausible gayness while maximizing plausible deniability.
They really shouldn't have bothered at all. The boss doesn't get it, Forbes writes: "Target CEO Brian Cornell broke his silence in an all-employee memo, which may have done more harm than good in quelling anxiety among Target staff."
Retail consultant Carol Spieckerman said Cornell's memo drew attention to the "communication vacuum without explaining it." She added that in the email, Cornell acknowledged but didn't take responsibility for the concerns and controversies surrounding the company. "The tone implies that things are happening around and to Target that are out of its control," she continued. GlobalData's Neil Saunders got much the same impression. He shared the memo, which appeared jumbled, lacked substance and was poorly crafted, "highlights the disconnect that has opened up between management and the shop floor." He added, "No where does it spell out how problems will be remedied."
"Many of Target's issues are self-inflicted. The business seems to be in a weird state of inertia and denial. What's strange is that Target isn't a terrible business, it has many advantages and a lot of talent in its ranks, it just doesn't seem to be able to marshal them properly. Leadership really needs to start connecting better with staff at all levels. At the moment it's not so much leading as drifting," GlobalData's Saunders shared with me.
