{"id":70279,"date":"2026-08-25T17:31:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/70279\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T17:31:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:31:23","slug":"target-says-its-sorry-for-offensive-halloween-costume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/70279\/","title":{"rendered":"Target Says It’s Sorry for ‘Offensive Halloween Costume’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Target<\/a> has apologized for a Halloween clown costume that sparked backlash on social media and says it will no longer be selling the item.<\/p>\n

“An apology from us: We pulled an offensive Halloween costume<\/a> that should never have been part of our assortment. It is no longer for sale,” the company wrote in a statement on X<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n

Business Insider viewed dozens of posts on social media, in which people posted screenshots of a Target product listed under the name “Kids’ Glows Under Blacklight Circus Clown Halloween Costume.” The product image showed a Black child dressed in a colorful orange and black top, paired with solid black gloves and a large mask depicting a broad smile.<\/p>\n

Several social media users on X, Threads, and Instagram likened the product to racist depictions of Black people, saying it evoked Jim Crow-era caricatures and blackface minstrel imagery.<\/p>\n

The product was not listed on Target’s online store at press time.<\/p>\n

“As a company, we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry. We know this is especially hurtful for our Black guests, team members and partners,” Target said in its statement.<\/p>\n

The company said it is also looking into how the product ended up in stores, and will examine “what needs to change to ensure this won’t happen again.”<\/p>\n

The Halloween costume controversy comes nearly a year after Target rolled back<\/a> its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.<\/p>\n

Target has faced criticism over a Halloween product before.<\/p>\n

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In 2009, the retailer removed<\/a> an “Illegal Alien” Halloween costume from its website after complaints from immigrant-rights advocates. The costume featured a space-alien mask, an orange jumpsuit bearing the words “Illegal Alien,” and a fake green card.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Target pulled a “Women’s Granny Costume” after the same outfit was sold on other retailers’ websites under a transphobic name. Target told Fortune<\/a> it had received no complaints about its listing but removed the costume “out of respect for public concerns.”<\/p>\n

Halloween costumes have landed other major retailers in hot water over the years.<\/p>\n

Walmart<\/a> faced backlash in 2015 for selling a children’s Halloween costume modeled after an Israeli soldier’s uniform. It also carried<\/a> a latex prosthetic called the “Sheik Fagin Nose,” marketed as “perfect for an Arab Sheik,” which drew criticism online.<\/p>\n

UK retailers Asda and Tesco also removed<\/a> two Halloween costumes in 2017 after complaints that they reinforced harmful stereotypes about mental illness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Target has apologized for a Halloween clown costume that sparked backlash on social media and says it will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[2854,10728,5153,15201,8,36373,5725,9,36371,36372,415,15396,7512,638,9434,7,14943,1349],"class_list":["post-70279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-backlash","tag-business-insider","tag-company","tag-complaint","tag-headlines","tag-illegal-alien","tag-name","tag-news","tag-offensive-halloween-costume","tag-other-retailer","tag-people","tag-product","tag-social-medium","tag-statement","tag-target","tag-top-stories","tag-website","tag-year"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/117157343089803639","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}