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Consumers’ Research leader blasts Target CEO for telling ‘flat-out lies’ about Pride pushback

November 6, 2023 | | Print Article

Think all the way back to Pride Month, and you’ll likely remember that Target was threatened with the Bud Light treatment over its in-your-face LGBTQ+ displays that featured things like “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuits for men and an alleged Satan-worshipping designer for kids.

Well, last week Target CEO Brian Cornell went on CNBC and claimed — despite what the nation clearly saw with their own eyes — that those allegations against his company “weren’t true.”

Consumers’ Research executive director Will Hild said Cornell “just flat out lies about what Target did.”

“He says that they didn’t target children with transgender ideology products, and he says that they didn’t work with the devil worshiper. Both of those things are verifiable facts,” Hild told Fox News Digital. “They’ve been reported by a number of different publications, and there’s just no question that this was done. He’s flat-out lying to his customers.”

(Video: Fox News Digital)

As BizPac Review reported, it was Target’s partnership with Erik Carnell, the designer of Abprallen — a British fashion brand that “creates apparel & accessories for underdogs, misfits, queers, and outcasts,” according to its X profile — that fueled the calls for a boycott.

Abprallen’s merchandise featured tags that read, “Satan respects pronouns.”


Added to that were the women’s swimsuits that advertised “tuck-friendly construction” for the men who wanted to wear them.

According to Fox News Digital, “they did not come in children’s sizes but were placed in colorful Pride sections surrounded by other items, many of which were for children.”

“One additional claim he made is that children were not targeted with these so-called ‘tuck’ bathing suits that were being sold. And that’s just not true,” Hild said. “They were placed in and among products made for children next to them into the display. If that’s not targeting children – if you’re putting literally the product next to child’s products – I don’t know what targeting is.”

Speaking to CNBC, Cornell claimed the anger directed at Target for its Pride displays made his employees feel unsafe.

Hild doesn’t buy it.

“What we saw coming out of Target CEO Cornell in this interview is a common tactic that companies that get in trouble for going woke use, where they try to put their employees safety or some concerns about their employees well-being in front of their mistake,” he said. “They focus on that instead of what they’ve done to offend their consumer. And consumers should really see this as another finger in their eye.”

“This guy is trying to pretend like the customer is the real problem here and not the fact that they were trying to push a far-left radical gender ideology on the children or in their store,” he stated.

It is Target, he argued, that is making the store unsafe — not for its employees, but for its young customers.

“He is the one who made Target stores unsafe for children, for the children of his customers, for children of his employees,” Hild said. “And yet he wants to deflect and put the blame back on his own customer base. He’s basically blaming you, the customer, for his mistakes.”

During his CNBC interview, Cornell said he believed that Target is now “through” the consumers’ outrage.

Again, Hild doubts the truth of the CEO’s statement.

“He talks about how customers are past this. The backlash is over. This is fantastical thinking,” Hild said. “Consumers remember what Target did to target children.”

 

Melissa Fine
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