Weekend Question 3: What Was Tar-Che Target Thinking?
Misguided Che chic gets reversed (HT Michelle Malkin):
Che Guevara CD case pulled from shelves
By Michele GershbergTarget Corp said on Friday it had pulled a CD carrying case bearing Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s image after an outcry by critics who label the Marxist revolutionary a murderer and totalitarian symbol.
Target had touted a music disc carrying case for Che admirers emblazoned with the Argentine-born guerrilla’s iconic 1960 portrait by Alberto Diaz, or “Korda.” A set of small earphones was superimposed on the image, suggesting he was tuned in to an iPod or other music player.
“It is never our intent to offend any of our guests through the merchandise we carry,” Target said in a statement. “We have made the decision to remove this item from our shelves and we sincerely apologize for any discomfort this situation may have caused our guests.”
(Aside: Leave it to a Reuters reporter to say that Che is “labeled” those things;
Ms. Gershberg, he WAS those things. Zheesh.)
Between the Che chic just described, Target’s still-unpopular ban of the Salvation Army kettles, and Wal-Mart’s embrace of gay activism *, the discounters have not had a very exemplary year.
Maybe the fact that the discounters are so frequently shooting themselves in the foot is one of the reasons (along with consumers’ real incomes going up) that department stores like Federated’s Macy’s are having a bang-up Christmas shopping season.
* – a big mistake by Wal-Mart, not because of the issue involved, but because that’s not what companies are in business for. It almost led (4th item at link) to a crippling Thanksgiving weekend boycott, leading it at nearly the last minute to totally back away from any causes unrelated to serving customers. This is the position the company should have held all along.
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UPDATE: Thanks to Memeorandum for making this post the first link to the story at its site.
UPDATE, Dec. 25, 9:30 PM: OpinionJournal.com’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady looks at the Che myth, and compares it to compares it to the horrid, brutal reality.
[...] —- Target Corp. has pulled their Che Guevara CD cases out of their stores after business columnists at Investor’s Business Daily and the Wall Street Journal made a stink about the cases bearing the image of the Commie-Marxist. (Hat tip: Tom Blumer) [...]
Pingback by Sister Toldjah » Misc. linkage for Christmas Eve eve and weekend open thread — December 24, 2006 @ 12:03 am
Target department stores sold Che merchandise…
But fortunately, they’re taking it off the shelves now (Hat tip: Michelle Malkin):…
Trackback by Tel-Chai Nation — December 24, 2006 @ 1:17 am
I wanna know why it took so long for this product to be recongnised. I work at a target in that department where the cases are placed, and those cases have been on the shelves since July of 2006. Is it because of christmas explostation, that finally the cases were noticed. Or is it something else. The cases didn’t sell to well as it was anyway becuase the kids that it was aimed at didn’t know who he was? How different is this to any other thing like beer shirts, drug reference shirts, R rated movies, M rated video games, NC17 cartoons or any other SATIRE.
Comment by Goy — December 29, 2006 @ 9:30 pm
#3, Thanks for the info, I had a feeling that they had been around for a while, and just detected by somebody who cared enough to raise a stink.
Whoever was doing the buying was either unaware of Che or was brainwashed about him. And I am not surprised they did not sell well. Who besides radical lib parents would want Che dolls for their kids?
Comment by TBlumer — December 29, 2006 @ 9:36 pm