[nianderwallace]

The NY Times article about Target marketing to expectant mothers - see https://web.archive.org/web/20120216181457/http://www.nytime...

  “My daughter got this in the mail!” he said. “She’s still in high school, and you’re sending her coupons for baby clothes and cribs? Are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant?”

  The manager didn’t have any idea what the man was talking about. He looked at the mailer. Sure enough, it was addressed to the man’s daughter and contained advertisements for maternity clothing, nursery furniture and pictures of smiling infants. The manager apologized and then called a few days later to apologize again.

  On the phone, though, the father was somewhat abashed. “I had a talk with my daughter,” he said. “It turns out there’s been some activities in my house I haven’t been completely aware of. She’s due in August. I owe you an apology.”

Even though they tried to be subtle about marketing pregnancy-related products to new mothers, they didn't go far enough.

Perhaps a graphic, on the front page, above the fold, pointing to pregnancy-related sales on interior pages of the flyer. Non pregnancy-related sales should dominate the front page.

[LocalH]

The fact that the guy apologized was a failure on his part. He should have escalated the matter to corporate, since what they did was incredibly creepy and disgusting. The manager shouldn't have apologized either - the apology should have come from the corporate executive who authorized this plan of action in the beginning. The manager likely had zero involvement in the ad whatsoever.

Targeted advertisement (and, modern advertisement in general) should be illegal. I don't consent to having my attention stolen by these scumbags