It’s not just all the gay customers who flock to Target to buy shabby chic microwaves and throw rugs. The retailer has profited off a number of gay designers as it lures in shoppers.
“Target is all about branding. You can get Goldfish crackers and Maybelline eyeshadow at Wal-Mart, but Target makes you feel special and somehow vaguely chic for buying said drugstore eyeshadow in its massive stores,” writes Andrew Harmon. “It can do so because of marketing tools like its fashion designer collaborations that are reliable generators of fawning press for the retailer. This evening my SSLA colleague Rakhee Bhatt and I counted numerous openly gay designers (and plenty of ostensibly gay designers) who have participated in Target designer projects over the past several seasons. Among them? Oh, merely Zac Posen, Jean Paul Gaultier, the late Alexander McQueen, and … well, scan the list of Target designer collaborations and you’ll get plenty of other mentions from the LGBT community.”
Have any of these gay designers come out against the company for trying to elect an anti-gay candidate? Oh let me just check Women’s Wear Daily and find out.
EARLIER:
Target + Best Buy Prove HRC’s Corporate Scoring Is Wholly Flawed. Is It Also Meaningless?
Kris
It is truly a shame to me that I once worked for Target. I live within walking distance to one, but would rather travel the 5-8 mile drive to Wal-mart…shame on Target. I will never spend another dime in a Target store.
L.
Oh, look, darling – the paperboy just delivered that daily Queerty article on Target!
Steve
Good God, are we still on this?
How can we not get that Target supports this guy for his economic plans, not his “kill all the gays” plans.
If any of you had a business, wouldn’t you support a guy who wants to support your business?
imnotfromtexas
@Steve: Not if he didn’t like me as a human being.
CHIP1218
Why would Target support the Republican for his economic plans over the Democrat who’s FAMILY CREATED TARGET. Don’t you think his billions are tied into Target’s future business growth? Why would he be a bad choice for Target financially speaking? Dayton wants to see his money disappear?
hephaestion
Gay designers better speak out or they will lose lots of business from The Gays AND the women who love us, who are their primary customers.
jason
@Kris: Are you F’ING KIDDING ME that you are going to Walmart instead of Target? How Naive are you? So Target gave money to an organization that gave money to an anti-gay candidate. WALMART gave money DIRECTLY to an anti gay candidate (Bill Brady running for Illinois Governor), plus Walmart only has a HRC rating of 40. So you are going to reward Walmart for being consistently anti-gay in order to punish Target for always supporting the LGBT community with 1 blip on the radar? This is exactly why the gays can’t get taken seriously. You’ll do whatever you can to throw an ally under the bus until they are no longer an ally.
PS. If Queerty posts one more Target article, I will be boycoting Queerty, not Target.
Pat Duffy
@jason: Actually, I’d rather support an honest bigot to a two-faced “Progressive”. Too many yrs of this BS makes me uninterested in supporting the 2-faced. Besides, even small towns like mine have more choices than T or W. ‘Course, going to more than one store is too much work for most of those under 40….