Target shares came under pressure on Tuesday after backlash over a Halloween costume sold by the retailer, renewing attention on high-profile marketing and product controversies involving global brands. Critics said Target’s Kids’ Glows Under Blacklight Circus Clown Halloween Costume resembled blackface and a minstrel-show caricature; the retailer apologized and removed it from some stores. Other cited cases include Starbucks’ South Korean campaign in early 2026, which appeared to reference the military crackdown on the student-led Gwangju Uprising of 1980 and was followed by what the company called a very significant sales decline and the dismissal of the head of Starbucks Korea; American Eagle’s 2025 Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans campaign, criticized for perceived racial undertones tied to genetic traits but later declared a success by the company; Target’s 2023 Pride Collection controversy; Bud Light’s 2023 promotion with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which led to a conservative backlash and the loss of its position as America’s best-selling beer to Modelo Especial; Balenciaga campaigns in 2022; Gucci’s 2019 blackface controversy; H&M’s 2018 advertisement featuring a Black child in a sweatshirt labeled Coolest Monkey in the Jungle; Pepsi’s 2017 Kendall Jenner commercial; Dove’s 2017 body-wash advertisement; Zara’s 2014 striped children’s top; and Mountain Dew’s 2013 online advertisement developed by Tyler, the Creator.