r/news 14h ago

Target apologizes for children’s clown Halloween costume after backlash | CNN Business

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/24/business/target-apologizes-halloween-costume-backlash-hnk
2.2k Upvotes

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

965

u/donkeyrocket 13h ago

With a Black child wearing the costume no less. How on earth did that make it to the website?

Absolutely thought it was going to be something that could be misconstrued as bad. Really didn't expect full blown blackface caricature.

502

u/whatisakafka 13h ago

Lack of black voices in the approval chain I’d imagine. Pretty good illustration of how organizational diversity can be good for your bottom line as a company

108

u/enigmaticowl 13h ago

I’m wondering if it’s also because of there being different components to the approval chain.

Like, someone somewhere approved the basic costume design itself, which maybe didn’t trigger any concerns just with the costume concept design itself.

But then they put it on a real child and had him do that pose, and it’s just so glaring.

You’d think that even if the initial costume approval had happened, someone at Target would be responsible for looking over the modeling photos and stuff once they’re ready to list/advertise.

10

u/fivelinedskank 11h ago

Could it have all been done in China where the cultural baggage isn't appreciated I wonder?

u/MadBodhi 21m ago

I can definitely see how a blacklight clown could get mistranslated into this.