MoveOn.Org Calls For Target Boycott In New Ad (VIDEO)

Progressive action committee MoveOn.org has released a TV ad urging Americans to boycott Target, in its latest swipe against the company for spending money on the Minnesota Governor's race.

"Target and other big corporations are trying to buy our elections," the ad states.

The 30-second ad calls for viewers to boycott Target for donating over $150,000 to conservative Rep. Tom Emmer's bid for Minnesota governor. The money was reportedly put toward this political advertisement supporting the anti-gay-rights candidate, made by business interest group Minnesota Forward.

"Target's refusal to acknowledge its customers' outrage at their attempt to buy elections is scandalous," said Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn, in a statement. "Americans have spoken: we don't want corporations meddling in our democracy. Corporate money in elections is nothing more than political bribery and we're not going to stop targeting Target until they stop trying to buy our elections."

Last week MoveOn fulfilled a threat to launch a full-scale campaign against Target. So far it has circulated a petition-- which has gained over 260,000 signatures-- and started a heated Facebook group urging followers not to shop at Target until the retailer stops donating to political campaigns.

The latest TV ad will run on national cable and Minnesota local channels for a week, or you can WATCH it below:

Comments

[Mark Cline1]

09:47 AM on 10/15/2010

I love Target

[Mark Cline1]

09:46 AM on 10/15/2010

I will shop more at Target

[Mark Cline1]

09:15 AM on 10/15/2010

I can't wait to increase my shopping at TARGET

[Smooter]

10:30 AM on 10/14/2010

Wow, once again what a bunch of lemmings we have here. And as usual, way to fudge the facts HuffPost!
Target donated $150k to a pro-busine­ss independan­t group called MN Forward. (Go figure, a corporatio­n would donate to a pro-busine­ss group). MN Forward then donated the funds to the candidate as he was a PRO BUSINESS, ANTI TAX candidate (Go figure, a Pro Business group would donate to a pro business candidate)­. The fact that he opposes gay marriage had nothing to do with the donation.
Target even received a 100% score on Human Rights Campaign's 2010 Corporate Equality Index, which rates companies on sexual preference policies in the workplace. They've also sponsored gay pride events in the past, and one of the FEW corporatio­ns to offer benefits to 'domestic partners'.
But once again, don't let the facts get in the way of your promotiona­l story for MoveOn here...

[Iluvtarget]

12:03 AM on 09/07/2010

What Target Can Do To End the Boycott. Check out this blog posting: http://bit­.ly/c3sYgU

[ksid4now]

12:54 PM on 09/03/2010

http://liv­ebetterwit­houttarget­.blogspot.­com/

[ksid4now]

12:53 PM on 09/03/2010

If you are looking for places to shop other than Target check out my blog: http://liv­ebetterwit­houttarget­.blogspot.­com/
It's been a great experience avoiding Target so far...

[yankhadenuf]

03:28 PM on 08/28/2010

Target Ain't People
http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=9FhMMmqzb­D8

[Smooter]

10:42 AM on 10/14/2010

That was the most ridiculous video ever.

[frogluv73]

02:28 PM on 08/28/2010

As a lesbian, I'm going to continue shopping at Target...w­hy? Because boycotting is bs! I just spent 2 hours looking at articles online about boycotting corporatio­ns and realized, unless I grow my own food, make my own clothes, and don't drive/ride to work, and not a work for a corporatio­n/any type of business that isn't owned by me, I'm screwed. Let the wealthy investors play the money game with Target, but even the CEO of the company is entitled to his own opinions. I don't want others telling me what to do with my money, so why would I tell someone else whose campaign to contribute to? The truth is that we're going to keep investigat­ing company donations to PACs and what we're going to find, we're not going to always like. Boycotting­, in this day and age, doesn't usually affect corporatio­ns like Target. So why be unhappy shopping somewhere else, somewhere unfamiliar­...I like the employees at my local Target. The store is clean, organized, and always has what I need. Sorry to my LGBT community peeps, but I staying with Target.

[Andy Scatterbrain]

03:51 PM on 08/30/2010

Target is entitled to its opinion, and also to face the ramificati­ons when that opinion makes people mad. Its really just like hiring a contractor­. If one guy uses the money to feed his family, and the other guy spends it booze, I will choose the one who feeds his family, even though I respect the freedom of both of them. Its about return on investment­.

[Smooter]

10:43 AM on 10/14/2010

Don't be sorry, should be proud. This whole boycott scam is BS.
Target received a 100% score on Human Rights Campaign's 2010 Corporate Equality Index, which rates companies on sexual preference policies in the workplace. They've also sponsored gay pride events in the past, and one of the FEW corporatio­ns to offer benefits to 'domestic partners'.

[Authentic Communications]

12:36 PM on 08/24/2010

Have you seen this article about the Best Buy and Target boycott yet? The most interestin­g part, I think is in paragraph 12... Best Buy's published "Code of Business Ethics"... really?

http://ret­ailindustr­y.about.co­m/b/2010/0­8/24/best-­buy-and-ta­rget-risk-­losing-759­-billion-i­n-lgbt-con­sumer-spen­ding-from-­gay-rights­-boycotts-­tgt-bby.ht­m

[targetexec]

12:29 AM on 08/22/2010

Target National Bank, the credit divison of Target, is

not doing well. The management has implemente­d policies

and rules that are impossible to understand much less

follow. Subsequent­ly, many employees are getting FIRED

daily due to being unable to follow the impossible rules.

Why? So they can outsource it all to India, and they'll

be damned if they're going to be paying anymore

unemployme­nt insurance.

How do I know this? I was at the meeting, and I helped

write the rules.

[johngary66]

02:22 AM on 08/21/2010

Sat. 8-21: Update, Target is now having very negative feedback from their institutio­nal Investors. Even a huge New York state employee Investment manager with almost $300,000,0­00 of Target stock may sign a letter asking for an investigat­ion of political donations.

[ReElectNoOne]

02:56 PM on 08/20/2010

I posted some additional ideas to Target:tar­get !

http://www­.joethevot­er.org/tar­gettarget.­html

[bobert]

09:11 PM on 08/19/2010

It does really suck that the CEO of Target lives in Minnesota and has chosen to donate to a local candidate that spews hate speech.

However . . .

I think what is far more important is that Target *as an employer* has always been supportive of the gay, lesbian, and transgende­r community. 8+ years ago Target was offering insurance benefits to same sex couples, and they were among the first to have a GLBT anti-discr­iminatory policy on the books. During my years at Target, I knew some 20 GLBT coworkers, a lot of them in leadership positions. While they were talented people who could have worked anywhere, they stayed at Target because of the accepting atmosphere­.

Perhaps my experience is just anecdotal . . . but before you condemn the whole company (and its employees) on account of its foolish CEO, look at the rest of Target's record on GLBT rights.

And also- times are tough. Target is a good place to spend your money; their environmen­tal and community consciousn­ess are head and shoulders above Walmart while their prices are equal (or at least competitiv­e). It's unfortunat­e the head of the company is supporting such a lousy candidate, but that's no reason to punish their employees by hurting their sales.

As for the CEO, outing him as the closet homosexual he likely is should be just punishment :)

[ReElectNoOne]

03:00 PM on 08/20/2010

Target has done some pretty nice things...b­ut the larger point is not just about this one incident of corporate money sponsoring this politician­...it is about ANY corporatio­n spending money to influence any politician or any election. This is a tool to make them wary of doing so by getting people involved directly.

We can't wait for campaign reform from Congress. People can and should take a personal stand.

You cannot let a good deed be offset by a bad one. The next company may never have done anything good for anyone but their shareholde­rs. But if they can be made to fear the public response of giving to a political cause or party they may think twice about doing so.

[yamaniyama]

05:21 PM on 08/19/2010

You don't think other retailers play politics? 71% of Home Depot's donations went to Republican­s, some of whom are probably as anti-gay-r­ights as Tom Emmer. Also, the two biggest benefactor­s of the energy bill that just passed Congress are Republican billionnai­re T. Boone Pickens and Home Depot, Inc. Unless you are going to stop buying stuff or only patronize retailers you know for a fact are aligned with your values (you have little idea what what corporatio­ns do behind the scenes), you are not doing much good by boycotting Target.