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arget apologized again this week. Not for a price hike, not for empty shelves. For a Halloween costume.
The item was called the "Kids' Glows Under Blacklight Circus Clown Halloween Costume," sold through the retailer's seasonal Hyde and EEK Boutique brand. Somewhere between design and checkout, shoppers started noticing it, posting photos, and drawing comparisons to Blackface and 19th-century minstrel performers. The listing came down. So did any pretense that this was a small thing.
Company spokesperson Brian Harper-Tibaldo didn't hedge when FOX Business asked about it.
"As a company, we know we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry," he said. The costume, he added, "is offensive and should never have been part of our assortment."
He kept going, too. Harper-Tibaldo said the moment is "especially hurtful" for Target's Black guests, team members and partners, and that pulling the costume off shelves is only step one. The company, according to him, is now digging into how the product got approved at all, and what has to change so it doesn't happen again.
That's the part worth watching. Anyone can apologize. Explaining how something like this got past design review, merchandising, and legal at a retailer the size of Target is a much harder conversation, and a much more revealing one.
It started, like most of these things do now, on Threads.
One user's post cut right to the point critics have been making about Target since last year: "You really don't have anyone left in Minneapolis to say, hey, that's racist?" The implication was blunt. Cut the diversity staff, and this is what slips through.
Whether that's literally what happened, nobody outside Target knows yet. But the accusation lands because of what the company already went through.
Here's the thing about Target right now. It doesn't have much room for another self-inflicted headline.
Back in January 2025, Target announced it was winding down its DEI commitments, just days after President Trump signed executive orders targeting diversity programs across the federal government. The backlash wasn't quiet. Pastor Jamal Bryant organized a 40-day "Target Fast" boycott that kicked off during Lent that spring, and it hit harder and lasted longer than the company likely expected.
The numbers tell the story better than any statement could. Target's stock fell roughly 30% during the boycott window. The company lost close to $12.5 billion in market value. Foot traffic dropped nearly 9% year over year in February 2025 alone, and it kept sliding, month after month, through the rest of the year. By the time fiscal 2025 closed out, net sales were down 1.7%, landing at $104.8 billion, with comparable sales off 2.5%.
Then-CEO Brian Cornell told investors flat out that the DEI backlash was dragging on sales. He was gone by February 2026, replaced by Michael Fiddelke, who spent much of this year trying to patch things up, renewing commitments to Black-owned suppliers and historically Black colleges and universities. Bryant's coalition finally called off the boycott in March.
Reputation trackers had actually started to notice a shift. RepTrak, the corporate reputation research firm, said late last year that Target's scores were creeping back up, calling it the early "twinkle" of the brand's old identity returning.
A costume that reads as Blackface to a lot of shoppers is about the worst thing that could land on Target right now, reputation-wise.
The company hasn't said how the item cleared review in the first place, or what specifically changes from here beyond pulling it off shelves. Halloween is still two months away. Target's seasonal aisles are just now filling up, which means every costume still on those racks is about to get a second look from people who remember exactly how expensive the last controversy was.
Nobody knows yet whether this fades by next week or turns into round two of the boycott. That probably depends less on what Target says next and more on how fast it says it.
Target hasn't announced any personnel changes tied to the costume, and it's unclear whether the Hyde and EEK Boutique line will face extra scrutiny for the rest of the season. A company spokesperson said only that the review is ongoing.
For now, the costume is gone from stores and off the website. Whether that's the end of it or just the opening chapter is out of Target's hands. Bryant's coalition has shown it's willing to organize fast when it feels ignored, and social media doesn't need much of a spark to turn a bad product decision into a full-blown corporate crisis. Target knows that better than almost any other retailer in America right now. It just learned it the hard way, again.
Target pulled a children's circus clown costume this week after shoppers online said it evoked Blackface and old minstrel show imagery. The company apologized directly, calling the product offensive and saying it's "deeply sorry." The timing is brutal. Target is barely a year removed from a boycott over its DEI rollback that cost it billions in market value, and this is exactly the kind of headline it can't afford right now.
