3 days ago
Why Target's Pride merch feels so bad
In the last 12 months, Target has publicly walked back its long-held DEI commitments, faced a weeks-long boycott from customers, and become one of several corporations that diminished its annual support for NYC Pride. But when June 1 rolled around, the company still trotted out its annual collection of Pride-inspired, rainbow-adorned merch—and, for a number of reasons, it's not landing well with queer customers.
This year's collection includes a series of apparel printed with slogans like 'Authentically Me' and 'Glowing with Pride,' rainbow-hued cat and dog doys, and, oddly enough, a couple of Pride-themed collectible bird figurines. Since the merch debuted, customers have been quick to notice an issue: Several of the items' labels are printed with 'lorem ipsum' filler copy. 'Target's pathetic 2025 Pride collection has arrived,' one Reddit post on the subject reads. According to a spokesperson, Target is aware of the error, which it says originated with a vendor, and is working to address the issue.
But for many customers, this labeling oversight feels like both a symptom and a symbol of larger issues at Target. For years, the company has turned Pride Month into a full-on branding extravaganza, releasing entire collections in stores and showing up as a sponsor at Pride parades across the country. In a series of events starting in 2023, though, Target has capitulated to rising conservative pressure, dialing back its Pride merch, ending its DEI commitments, and, this year, retreating from Pride parade sponsorship.
Taken together, these factors make Target's 2025 Pride collection feel, at best, like a desperate bid to save face, and, at worst, like an attempt to cash in on a community that it's too afraid to support outside of store walls.
Target's retreat from Pride
Target first launched pride products in 2015, and largely continued to expand its Pride-based inventory in the years following, openly doubling down on its support for the queer community during a bout of transphobic backlash in 2017. However, starting in 2023, the brand's approach to Pride has been in flux.
In May of 2023, CEO Brian Cornell told Fortune's Leadership Next podcast that the company's DEI efforts had 'fueled much of our growth over the last nine years.' Mere weeks later, though, Target removed some items from its annual Pride collection after receiving an influx of conservative pushback, and even threats to its employees, over the items.
The waters have been increasingly muddy for Target's Pride efforts ever since. In 2024, the company scaled back its Pride Month sections from all stores to only select locations and online. Then, this January, as companies across the country stepped back from DEI initiatives under the Trump administration, Target announced a series of its own concessions. The brand shared it was 'concluding' certain goals and initiatives tied to racial equity in hiring, no longer participating in external surveys from the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization the Human Rights Campaign, and renaming its 'supplier diversity' team to 'supplier engagement', shifting its focus away from explicitly courting brands with diverse ownership.
To many loyal customers, this announcement felt like a betrayal, especially given that Target had previously been more vocal than its corporate peers on DEI initiatives—and that the company has profited annually on Pride Month. This sparked a boycott of the brand that caused foot traffic to drop and share prices to plummet.
In the aftermath, the Twin Cities pride parade announced that it would no longer accept Target as a sponsor. And, according to NYC Pride spokesperson Kevin Kilbride, Target was one of several brands that either backed out, reduced its contribution, or asked for its involvement to go unpublicized in the event. Target's retreat from Pride is part of a larger trend this year of corporations choosing not to renew their sponsorship; a pattern that's left many queer consumers wondering if corporate support was always just 'rainbow washing,' or an attempt to signal affinity with LGBTQ+ customers merely to profit off of them.
'The [queer] community has been completely abandoned by a number of major companies, across a lot of brand categories,' Joanna Schwartz, a professor at Georgia College & State University with a specialty in LGBTQ+ marketing, told Fast Company in May. 'The current prevailing wind is out of a far more conservative place, and companies are trying not to make anyone mad, but the companies that were really trying to make an easy buck off of the community were the first ones to leave.'
'Now they're trying to keep getting our money, while denying our humanity'
Now that Pride Month has officially arrived, Target is left in a sticky situation. The company is attempting to walk a tightrope between avoiding a conservative outcry for its Pride merch while also striving not to alienate LGBTQ+ customers (who, according to a 2023 study by the investment adviser LGBT Capital, hold an estimated $3.9 trillion in global purchasing power). This year, Target's Pride collection looks fairly similar to last year's and is, once again, only available in some locations.
In a statement to Fast Company, a spokesperson shared, 'We are absolutely dedicated to fostering inclusivity for everyone—our team members, our guests, our supply partners, and the more than 2,000 communities we're proud to serve. As we have for many years, we will continue to mark Pride Month by offering an assortment of celebratory products, hosting internal programming to support our incredible team and sponsoring local events in neighborhoods across the country.'
Regardless of its intentions, Target's Pride merch is coming off decidedly hollow for queer customers this year, given its backtracking from the community at large. 'Whenever it's time to profit off Pride, Target rolls out the rainbows,' one X user wrote. 'But when it comes time to actually stand with the queer community? Crickets. Your Pride merch means nothing without a spine.'
On Reddit, users under a post regarding the unfinished 'lorem ipsum' tags expressed discomfort with parts of the collection. One of the items is a moving truck figurine decked out in the lesbian flag and the phrase 'Move N;' a reference to the concept of 'U-Hauling.' Per Urban Dictionary, the slang term pokes fun at the stereotype of 'the speedy act of moving in together after a brief courtship between lesbians.' One commenter called the figurine 'insulting af.' Others pointed out the lack of any reference to the trans or non-binary communities. Still others were generally frustrated with the company's unreliable support.
'Gay folks never asked for target to sell cheap low quality merch with rainbows splattered all over it,' one user commented. 'All we asked for is to be treated fairly and allowed to live our lives. They made this shit to get our business. Now they're trying to keep getting our money, while denying our humanity.'
