Back in 2010, which feels like a hundred years ago, Target Corp. faced a firestorm of criticism when the public learned that the store was bankrolling a conservative Republican candidate for Minnesota Governor, Tom Emmer, who was anti-gay and anti-marriage equality.
Boycotts sprang up. We cats, in fact, had been devoted Target shoppers — buying health and beauty aids and household items there almost weekly — but quickly stopped when the company's Emmer support came to light. (To this day, we avoid the store 99 percent of the time, not just because of the Emmer controversy but because we resented Target's previous posturing as an inclusive corporate citizen.)
Meanwhile, Target handled the PR crisis badly — dragging it out by defending and then apologizing. They could have taken a lesson from Publix Supermarkets this week.
With store aisles in Florida awash in die-ins — organized by Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg — the company quickly suspended its contributions to the Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam, who is in thrall to the NRA and doesn't care who knows it. Publix also said it would re-evaluate its funding policies.
Now, when we say Publix reacted quickly and efficiently, we're not giving the company a clean bill of health. Its donations to the loathsome Putnam totaled many more thousands of dollars than Target's support of Tom Emmer, and included personal gifts by founders and executives as well. And frankly, we're disgusted that Publix would unthinkingly support a pig like Putnam just because they believe he'd be good for the bottom line. There's more to life than that, folks.
So we're happy that activists like Hogg and the people who boycotted Target eight years ago are able to cause big corporations pain, even if it's merely fleeting. But we're not sure everyone got their just deserts. After all, Tom Emmer is a Congressman now. Which makes us HISS.
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