Off Target

There’s an old saying in politics. When you’ve dug yourself a hole, drop the shovel.

That’s true many times, but not always. A case in point is Target and its celebration of Pride Month. They went all in with rainbow displays and tee shirts with provocative messages. And they went full-out LGBTQ++++ with a swimwear collection that, let’s just say, allowed you to express your gender identity without revealing any physical evidence to the contrary.

Target executives didn’t do this because they’re true-believer social activists. They did it because their target demographic is young — college students looking to furnish dorm rooms, young adults looking for all the stuff you need for your first apartment, etc. I, myself, no longer a young person by any stretch of the imagination, look to Target for all of my container needs. I need a plastic box with a nice, secure lid about this size? Target’s gonna have it.

Back to that target Target demographic of which I am not a member. Young people are very, very much into inclusivity. According to a recent Gallup poll only 3% of Baby Boomers identify as gay, lesbian or transgender while 20% of Generation Z does. My guess is that reality is someplace in between. Baby Boomers were reluctant to come out of the closet while Generation Z sees being anything other than decidedly heterosexual as very cool.

So going full bore, Def Con One Pride Month made total sense for Target. Then there was a backlash. Some customers in a few stores did stupid things. They yelled at staff, nocked over displays and generally made asses of themselves. Can’t we have a little ‘live and let live’ here people? If someone is transgender how does that threaten you? They can be who they are, you can go on being who you are. What’s the problem here? You really feel threatened by loose fitting swimwear? Are you okay? Do you need to talk to someone?

So the problem wasn’t with Target but with a handful of their customers. Once they chose this path Target should have stayed the course. Instead, they caved. They took down some displays, moved provocative merchandise to the back of the store and generally toned it down. Now they’re dealing with the predictable backlash to the backlash as the very groups and generations they were pandering to are disgusted by their retreat.

A similar story played out a few weeks earlier with Bud Light. The company sent a can with the photo of a transgender influencer on it and when she posted about it Bud Light nation went nuts, although in that case boycotting Bud Light is like giving up hair shirts or lutefisk. America needs Target, does anybody need Bud Light?

But I digress. I think Target was right in the first place and they should have anticipated the conservative backlash and hung in there. Younger generations are obsessed — I believe to an unhealthy degree — with identity. But politics is not Target’s business. Selling stuff is. They made a perfectly rational business decision to go all in on identity in order to connect with their most cherished customers.

I tend to think that the answer to too much woke is a lot of free enterprise. Commerce will likely sand off the rough edges of identity politics just like Madison Avenue sold Coke in the sixties by coopting the counter culture. I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony. The counter became the culture — softened, compromised, mainstreamed, less threatening and better.

The market always wins and, for the most part, that’s a good thing.