It's not just Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) that often has to cave in to analytical pressure. Cheap-chic rival Target (NYSE: TGT) is pulling controversial CD cases with the likeness of Ernesto "Che" Guevara from its stores.
The beret-donning Guevara has been a popular icon for posters and T-shirts for ages outside the discount department store space. Target was hoping to cash in, ironically enough, on the Marxist revolutionary, but it just wasn't worth the backlash.
Target still isn't free of him entirely, though. Online, Target lists dozens of books about Guevara's life through its partnership with Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN). That is unlikely to change, as the outcry was specifically about promoting Guevara as a pop-culture dynamo, a move that offended groups on both sides of the political fence. The decision was never to censor his existence from historical reads.
However, this isn't the first time that Target has had to pull a product because some groups found it offensive. Back in April, Target cleared its greeting-card shelves of an Easter card that some deemed to be insensitive to the Asian community.
Yes, Wal-Mart is the name that most consumers associate with product retrenchments. Last month, Wal-Mart pulled a T-shirt from its stores after a blogger noted that the skull-and-crossbones design was the spitting image what appeared in a Nazi campaign. It has also been quick to clear its selling space of risque magazines and raunchy videogames.
Yes, the times have changed. Eleven years ago, Wal-Mart was raked over the coals for actually pulling a product -- T-shirts that read "Someday a woman will be president" -- and now the wave of political correctness has shifted the other way.
Better luck next time, Target. Let's hope that losing your Che chic doesn't dull the finish of your cheap-chic shine.
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Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz did spend some of his holiday shopping time at Target earlier this month but probably spent more time at Target.com instead. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is also part of the
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