Pride Section at Target - Photo by the Washington Post
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) – Corporations like Target and Anheuser-Busch are continuing to feel the pain of consumer boycotts after they released products featuring trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney and transgender clothing for minors.
Earlier this week, according to a source inside Target that spoke with Fox News, Target made “emergency” calls to managers and senior directors at the store after facing criticism over their Pride collection, which featured “tuck-friendly” female swimwear and other items.
To prevent a “Bud Light situation,” calls were made to some locations to tell them to make the Pride items display less visible.
The insider continued by saying, “We were given 36 hours, told to take all of our Pride stuff, the entire section, and move it into a section that’s a third the size. From the front of the store to the back of the store, you can’t have anything on mannequins and no large signage.”
Last week, Target came under fire for selling “tuck-friendly” and “extra crotch coverage” female swimwear, as social media users pointed out.
“The call was super quick, it was 15 minutes. The first 10 minutes were about how to keep your team safe and not have to advocate for Target. The last five was, ‘Move this to the back, take down the mannequins and remove the signage,’” the source told Fox.
Target also received heavy criticism for partnering with the British apparel company Abprallen, whose designs feature, Satan. One of their shirts reads, “Satan respects pronouns,” and according to the designer, this design is not meant to be taken literally; rather, it references Satan as a “symbol of passion, pride, and liberty.”
The video below went viral on the social media platform TikTok on Monday when a shopper recorded “Pride” items that were available for minors in the kids/toddler section of the store. The shopper got noticeably upset at the end when she found a swimsuit in a child size that was labeled as “light binding effect” and “tuck friendly construction”.
Why is major US store chain Target pushing the LGBTQ+ agenda at KIDS? pic.twitter.com/JkOQUOKKw7
— David Vance (@DVATW) May 22, 2023
A sweatshirt that read “cure transphobia, not trans people” and a tote bag with the phrase “too queer for here” were among the items that Target said it has withdrawn from its stores in reaction to the backlash.
Meanwhile, retail sales of Bud Light in the United States fell by 23.6% in the week ending on May 6 compared to the same period last year, exceeding the 23.3% drop the brand had in the final week of April, according to information from Bump Williams Consulting and Nielsen IQ, as reported by the New York Post.
The situation has become so dire that Bud Light is now offering a $15 rebate to anyone who buys a 15-pack or more of Bud Light, Budweiser, Budweiser Select, or Budweiser Select 55 between now and May 31 as a way to “make your Memorial Day weekend easier to enjoy.”
The company will launch a line of camouflage aluminum bottles to regain some of its lost customers. The bottles will promote the “Folds of Honor” program, which provides educational scholarships to the families of deceased and injured first responders and American military personnel.
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