Target doesn't have time to respond to blogs

Posted Jan 28th 2008 11:11AM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Blogs, Marketing and Advertising, Target Corp. (TGT)

Today's New York Times takes a look at Target (NYSE: TGT) and what can only be described as its arrogant attitude towards bloggers.

ShapingYouth.org sent an e-mail to the company, criticizing an ad Target was running that featured a woman lying on a Target logo with the bullseye centered on her crotch. Target responded by saying that, "Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets."

Wow! That kind of arrogance reminds me of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) -- isn't Target supposed to be hip and chic? You'd think it would be up on what a powerful force bloggers are becoming.

A policy of not responding to blogs makes no sense at all. Companies should respond to questions from any potential customer.

Target explained to the New York Times that the ad was a woman making a snow angel, suggesting that it wasn't meant to be provocative. From looking at the ad, and despite the retailer's attitude, I'm actually inclined to agree.

Target could have saved itself a lot of trouble by just writing back to the blogger, explaining the idea behind the ad. Instead, the company's PR team is now answering the same question from the New York Times, and wasting further time defending its asinine policy of not responding to blogs.

Tags: inthenews, shapingyouth.org, Target, TGT

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-28-2008 @ 6:31PM

jaykaydee said...

Target's arrogance and short-sightedness is stunning. And off-brand (or at least off of what I thought was Target's brand). How can it have no interest in the voice of its target consumer? How can its "media" staff cling to arcane ideas of media? The main issue here is of relevance and how Target can earn and keep it. There's a good read on this here:
http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/4451/54/

3-19-2008 @ 2:35PM

John said...

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