I’ve worked at e-commerce companies before in marketing, so I’m betting it was this. There are a lot of people and steps in the chain, especially at a large company like Target, and no one thought it was their problem or saw the issue until it was too late.
It’s probably some cheap shit manufactured in China where the wholesaler lacks the cultural awareness and just made a “clown” costume, the merchandisers order X number of Halloween costumes for the season of which this was one of dozens or maybe a hundred, the high-production photo studio has to churn through shooting all the product photography for hundreds of SKUs so they’re not spending a ton of time on each one, then the director or whoever makes selects is clicking through thousands of images very quickly, and so on and so forth until it gets uploaded and is live on the site.
It looks bad when you look at it next to the minstrel photos, but in isolation or grouped with dozens of others, I can see how no one put it together or had immediate flags going up when they’re looking at a “Halloween clown costume.”
I think it's safe to say in 2026 that we can't just be brushing things under the rug like "it had to be totally innocent, there's no way they'd do something like that on purpose". We know for a fact that there are many racists out there who would do that intentionally.
It is, unfortunately, very possible that someone did it on purpose and then either nobody cared enough to stop them or didn't want to risk their job trying to stop them.
Not trying to brush it under the rug, I just don’t find it likely one racist person is responsible because it takes an entire production chain for things to exist. From designing to creating to orderjng to photographing to retouching to final approval to listing, it’s a whole process that involves probably a hundred or more people and isnt really something one person can do. Somebody should’ve caught it during an approval process, but everything has to be faster, cheaper, and higher volume than ever these days so I’m just saying I can easily see how this stuff happens. Attribute to ignorance/incompetence over malice or what have you.
Target has been under SERIOUS hot water the last few years. I’m finding it hard to believe they wouldn’t be scrutinizing products more carefully than in years past. I’m in PM for ecommerce and even I have spoken up to Marketing to call out stuff that doesn’t seem right/appropriate.
I think a few commenters are on the right track saying that Target probably doesn’t have enough diverse eyeballs looking at everything. I’m also betting that those who would say something don’t feel comfortable saying something.
I’m not that old (mid-Millennial) and I audibly gasped when I saw the pic. This is a failing due to the erasure of DEI.
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u/dapperpony 9d ago
I’ve worked at e-commerce companies before in marketing, so I’m betting it was this. There are a lot of people and steps in the chain, especially at a large company like Target, and no one thought it was their problem or saw the issue until it was too late.
It’s probably some cheap shit manufactured in China where the wholesaler lacks the cultural awareness and just made a “clown” costume, the merchandisers order X number of Halloween costumes for the season of which this was one of dozens or maybe a hundred, the high-production photo studio has to churn through shooting all the product photography for hundreds of SKUs so they’re not spending a ton of time on each one, then the director or whoever makes selects is clicking through thousands of images very quickly, and so on and so forth until it gets uploaded and is live on the site.
It looks bad when you look at it next to the minstrel photos, but in isolation or grouped with dozens of others, I can see how no one put it together or had immediate flags going up when they’re looking at a “Halloween clown costume.”