Target-ing Pride

Today, Explained

Vox

Politics, Daily News, News

4.3 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2023

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Companies have been leaning into Pride month for years. So why are brands like Target and Bud Light facing such intense backlash now? Vox’s Emily Stewart and historian Kyle Williams explain. This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Michael Raphael with help from Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The top song on iTunes chart.net today is Boycott Target by Mago Rapper for
0:14.7	Giato Blow, Fiat Nick Natoli and Stoney Dude Brode. Target has aggrieved some
0:21.0	conservative activists because June is Pride Month and the company is selling
0:24.9	Pride merchandise. A thing it has done in order to make money for years. Except
0:29.7	previous years have not been 2023, a year in which Anheuser Bush's King of
0:34.0	Beers light got in trouble with Kid Rock and Travis Tritt for partnering with
0:38.1	Trans Influencer Dylan Mulvaney to sell beer. A year in which Lego, Coles and
0:43.4	PetSmart are also facing Boycott calls over their sales of Pride-related
0:47.4	merch such as PetSmart's Pride Bikini for Dogs and the Rainbow Lamptop toy.
0:52.3	It's all coming up on today's plane.
0:59.7	It's today explained I'm Noel King. Companies have been making money by selling
1:14.5	Pride merchandise for so many years that it's difficult to find answers to
1:18.8	questions like which company was first, what year did they do it in. This is
1:24.2	just something that's done and it's 2023 and it is not that controversial. But
1:28.9	it's 2023 and so of course it's controversial. Vox's Emily Stewart has
1:34.4	been covering target and bud light to companies that conservative activists have
1:38.5	targeted recently. Emily, can you start with Target? So a lot of the controversy
1:43.9	really appeared to center around misinformation and a rumor that Target was
1:48.6	selling Tuck Friendly bathing suits to children. So I found an extra small
1:52.7	swan suit in the child section says light binding effect on it and then the
1:58.5	bottoms in the kids section keep in mind say Tuck Friendly Construction. They're
2:06.4	giving it to your kids. This was not happening. These Tuck Friendly bathing suits
	...

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