Shareholder Sues Target Over ‘Billions’ Lost After Pride Campaign Backlash
America First Legal (AFL), a group advocating for legal action, filed a lawsuit against Target Corporation and its board of directors on behalf of a Target shareholder. The lawsuit claims that the company provided false information to shareholders and incurred substantial losses for investors, resulting in billions being lost.
In May 2023, Target introduced a Pride collection aimed at children, featuring LGBTQ-themed clothing such as transgender flag onesies and LGBTQ-themed books. This move led to a store boycott and a significant decrease in the company's stock value. The lawsuit argues that Target's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies were not designed to benefit all shareholders but instead served a specific ideological agenda. The lawsuit highlights instances such as Bud Light's sales decline due to hiring an LGBTQ ambassador.
The lawsuit claims that Target Corporation deceived its primary customer base of working families and its investors through false statements about its DEI and ESG mandates. These misleading statements allegedly resulted in the company's disastrous LGBTQ Pride campaign for children and families in 2023, causing a significant stock decline and substantial losses for investors.
The lawsuit continues to state that Target's children-and-family-themed LGBTQ Pride campaign, which became widely recognized, sparked a cultural controversy and led to the most substantial stock drop in the company's history, costing investors billions.
Bud Light faced a similar negative response when it selected prominent transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney as a brand ambassador and sent a personalized Bud Light can. This decision resulted in significant financial losses for the company, with nearly a 27% decline in sales for the week ending on July 22. As a consequence, Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light, had to sell off several of its brands.
A press release from AFL highlights that Target's 2022 and 2023 Proxy Statements assured shareholders that the company's board was actively monitoring social and political issues and associated risks related to its ESG and DEI mandates. However, the release claims that the management primarily focused on satisfying left-leaning "stakeholders," rather than genuinely addressing these concerns.
