Target store chain void of common decency (ACTION ALERT)

AFA.net ^ | 9/25/03 | Don Wildmon

[truthandlife]

Would you believe Target has approved its Marshall Field's stores to sell a product called FCUK? Target must consider parents really naive to not know exactly what type of message they are "targeting" to our kids.

Here's how one mother put it:

I didn't see this on television but it was an advertisement insert in last Sunday's newspaper for Marshall Field's dept. store for a cologne and a clothing line aimed at teenagers called "Fcuk" and their advertising slogan to go with it is "scent to bed". I was really appalled at this and then a friend of mine saw huge posters promoting this IN the Marshall Field's store in my area. When she complained to a clerk about it she was referred to a manager who told her the corporate office makes all the decisions about what they advertise. Another mother put it this way:

Not only does the name make an obvious grab at the mind to be misspelled as one of the vilest slang words ever used, it also goes further to make its point. A young, attractive, half dressed couple are snuggling on a bed with the words "scent to bed" superimposed over their picture. On the inside where you can pull the flyer apart to see what the product smells like you read "open here to try fcuk her" and "open here to try fcuk him". On the back page is an offer to "get your scent to bed t-shirt". For a major retailer to promote and sell this type of product is reprehensible to me. I hope it is to you too! I think we need to pull out all the stops to let Target know they have crossed the line with our families.

ACTION NEEDED Will you join me by making an extra effort in contacting the Target corporation by taking action? We already know the Target will block emails sent through the AFA Action Alert system, so your extra effort is greatly appreciated!

Call Target's toll-free number and let them know how disgusted you are with their decision to sell FCUK products through their Marshall Field's stores. Their toll free number is 1-800-440-0680, extension 1.

Here's a note: You will be told that you are calling Target, not Marshall Field's. Don't be fooled by their attempt to discourage you. Target is responsible for Marshall Field's decision to sell their nasty product!

In addition, they may ask for your mailing address. We recommend not giving that information. By doing so, your home might become a target for receiving a promotional mail out for the product.

Additional contact information:

Headquarters Address Target Stores 1000 Nicollet Mall Minneapolis, MN 55403 (612) 304-6073 Fax: 612-696-3731 Online comment form: Click Here

[truthandlife]

Remember, they do listen. Boycotts and emails do work. Here is proof.

Planned Parenthood Will Not Get Funds from Target Corp.

[Leroy S. Mort]

That really SCUKS !!

[Beelzebubba]

Threads relating to this have been getting pulled.

I suggest buying a case of this stuff before it is pulled form the shelves, and selling it on eBay to collectors 5 years form now.

[Old Sarge]

I first thought this might be a hoax, but WOW! the word's spreading.

Hilarious, and ironic...

[Alia]

Let's not forget that au-so-funny blurb that was zinging around the internet and the grownups were chuckling over -- that "inventive" spelling blurg which suggested one only needs to "identify" the first and last letters of a word in order to "read". Ha, ha. NOT. I thought it was the stupid darned thing and mighty suspicious of WHY this "blurb" was zinging around the internet. Do not forget, also "inventive spelling" will GO PAST MOST ALL FILTERS ON browsers and emails. grrr.

[gathersnomoss]

They have received my message advising them that we will not shop at their stores if FCUK arrives on the shelves.

And I was going to purchase a new Tonka trcuk for my child for his birthday.

[Heyworth]

In London there's a big FCUK flagship store close to Harrod's. It's an acronym for French Connection UK.

[natewill]

I dont know where I can shop anymore. Walmart's out, now Target's out. Where can a guy get razorblades and windshield wipers without paying an arm and a leg?

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Wonder how one could go about acquiring a retail case?

[af_vet_rr]

They have received my message advising them that we will not shop at their stores if FCUK arrives on the shelves.

I agree, I will not be buying FCUK from Target or Marshall Fields until this stops.

[TC Rider]

I first thought this might be a hoax, but WOW! the word's spreading.

French Connection UK was all the rage last year in the UK. Wonder why it took so long to catch on over here?

[gathersnomoss]

Krap, I need a break. Too funny.

[Cousin Eddie]

They know exactly what they are doing. Check out an email I recently received...

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.



Amzanig huh?

[gathersnomoss]

Butifl.

[Cobra64]

Anyone know what are the stores' websites are?

[Heyworth]

frenchconnection.com

[af_vet_rr]

Krap, I need a break. Too funny.

In retrospect, that was bad, but I saw where this thread was going (and probably why other threads like it have been pulled).

apologies if I offended anybody.

[truthandlife]

Go to the link on the article (very end of article)

[ZGuy]

FCUK

Claim:   A company known as FCUK is promoting their fragrance with a "scent to bed" advertising campaign.

Status:   True.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2003]

Target store chain void of common decency

The Target corporation subsidiary, Marshall Field's, is actively campaigning for your children to purchase a new teen fragrance with a disgusting insinuation.

Would you believe Target has approved its Marshall Field's stores to sell a product called FCUK? Target must consider parents really naive to not know exactly what type of message they are "targeting" to our kids.

Here's how one mother put it:

I didn't see this on television but it was an advertisement insert in last Sunday's newspaper for Marshall Field's dept. store for a cologne and a clothing line aimed at teenagers called "Fcuk" and their advertising slogan to go with it is "scent to bed". I was really appalled at this and then a friend of mine saw huge posters promoting this IN the Marshall Field's store in my area. When she complained to a clerk about it she was referred to a manager who told her the corporate office makes all the decisions about what they advertise.Another mother put it this way:

Not only does the name make an obvious grab at the mind to be misspelled as one of the vilest slang words ever used, it also goes further to make its point. A young, attractive, half dressed couple are snuggling on a bed with the words "scent to bed" superimposed over their picture. On the inside where you can pull the flyer apart to see what the product smells like you read "open here to try fcuk her" and "open here to try fcuk him". On the back page is an offer to "get your scent to bed t-shirt". For a major retailer to promote and sell this type of product is reprehensible to me. I hope it is to you too!

I think we need to pull out all the stops to let Target know they have crossed the line with our families.

Will you join me by making an extra effort in contacting the Target corporation by taking the following actions:

1. Send a letter to Target and Marshall Field's executives by clicking the link below.

2. Call Target's toll-free number and let them know how disgusted you are with their decision to sell FCUK products through their Marshall Field's stores. Their toll free number is 1-800-440-0680, extension 1.

Here's a note: You will be told that you are calling Target, not Marshall Field's. Don't be fooled by their attempt to discourage you. Target is responsible for Marshall Field's decision to sell their nasty product!

In addition, they may ask for your mailing address. We recommend not giving that information. By doing so, your home might become a target for receiving a promotional mail out for the product.

Send your letter now!

Origins:   French Connection United Kingdom is a real company, a vendor of youth fashion, shoes, fragrances, and other items, and their better-known suggestive initialism, FCUK, is used to maximum effect in ads which urge their youthful consumers to "fcuk him" or "fcuk her." The company also announced the opening of their biggest store to date with a full page ad reading "The World's Biggest FCUK." (As a recent item of interest suggests, the order of interior letters in a word is relatively unimportant to reading comprehension, so people naturally scan 'fcuk' as 'fuck.') The advertising campaign for FCUK fragrance does feature an image like the one described above, "a young, attractive, half dressed couple snuggling on a bed with the words 'scent to bed' superimposed over their picture." Print ads for FCUK fragrance have run in the September issues of Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan women's magazines, and also in publications aimed at younger girls, such as Teen People and Seventeen. (Customers who spend $38 or more can claim a free T-shirt with the "Scent to Bed" slogan printed across the front.)

A backlash in parts of the U.S. against the company's brazen advertising campaigns has already led some department store outlets such as Kaufmann's to discontinue distributing advertising circulars or posting in-store displays for FCUK fragrance, although the stores still carry the product. (FCUK's methods of promoting their fragrance are hardly new, as Springmaid was only slightly less subtle in advertising their sheets with obvious sexual double entendres half a century ago.)

For their part, FCUK continues to play coy. "Our message is light-hearted and fun, and any misinterpretation is purely in the eye of the beholder," said Karen Gori, a brand manager for FCUK Fragrance.

Last updated:   16 September 2003

  The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/fcuk.asp
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Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2003
by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
This material may not be reproduced without permission

---

  Sources:

    Black, Lisa.   "Clothier Swears Name Is Clean Fun."

    Chicago Tribune.   1 September 2003.

    Ethridge, Mary.   "Scent's Racy Name Raises a Real Stink."

    The [Akron] Beacon Journal.   12 September 2003.

    Kapner, Suzanne.   "Risqué Business."

    [New York] Newsday.   2 September 2003.

    The [Akron] Beacon Journal.   "Perfume Marketing Signs Taken Down."

      12 September 2003.

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[Cobra64]

I'm going to send them an e-mail telling them to go FCUK themselves.

[chainsaw]

I think she was mistaken - these creeps can't spell, which figures because they can do arithmetic either.

[sasafras]

Yeah thats sounds real good lets buy more of this stuff so they think we support their product. World to Beelzebubba - wake up and smell the coffee the idea is to BOYCOTT the product not buy it brainiac. I can see now why this country is so messed up.

[af_vet_rr]

I'm going to send them an e-mail telling them to go FCUK themselves.

Thank you, I'm now off the hook for worst comment in this thread ;-)

[azhenfud]

Neither I nor members of my family will enter another Target store until the decision to unshelve all FCUK items is implemented.

This market choice is either a gross display of ignorance or a serious miscalculation of the consumers' intelligence, which is at minimum, offensive.

Sincerely,"

[Gunslingr3]

I dont know where I can shop anymore. Walmart's out, now Target's out. Where can a guy get razorblades and windshield wipers without paying an arm and a leg?

The irony...

[GSWarrior]

You know, there is a big FCUK store down the street from my office and it certainly is unnerving and unsettling. I would never buy anything from them and would forbid my kids from wearing their acronym. But...these are just letters of the alphabet that don't even spell an actual word. They are harmless. I'm willing to just roll my eyes on this one.

[NormB]

Do you believe this siht?
What's the world coming to?

[Diva Betsy Ross]

I called and they tol dme they would direct my concerns to their corporate headquaters. Seems like they are expecting a response to this. I told the lady they are making my job as a parent impossible with this type of advertising ,and I thought it was not creative at all.

[Always Right]

Shoot, I am more offended by the fact it is a French product! Tell Target to FCUK off...

[T Minus Four]

Dang, I zipped right through that. Well that does it, I'm not buying siht from Target.

[Snake65]

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in
waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht
the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl
mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do
not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

[Theodore R.]

Isn't Target owned by popular Sen. Mark Dayton, D-MN?

[swheats]

Thanks I contacted them. I had just decided to start shopping there again. I'll have to see how this one goes.

[hchutch]

I just might patronize stores that sell it. Wildmon doesn't like it - fine. But he ought not to try to remove my ability to buy it from stores.

[Beelzebubba]

I won't be buying SIHT from Target either!

(Actually, that would be a pretty funny parody product!)

[MD_Willington_1976]

I've seen a shirt like that on a well endowed female at the local university was wearing it, the caption read "Too Tired to Fcuck"...

Now if you are an adult and want to wear this silly ass crap then hey thats ok..but dont buy this crap for a kid..

[Beelzebubba]

For their part, FCUK continues to play coy. "Our message is light-hearted and fun, and any misinterpretation is purely in the eye of the beholder," said Karen Gori, a brand manager for FCUK Fragrance.

---

Then why aren't they naming the US branch "FCUS" or FCUSA"?

[jmc813]

I think 'fcuk' would make a good FR sceen name.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Actually, this would be pretty funny if they were targeting adults...

[Voice in your head]

Thanks for the post. In the arena of victimless crimes, I think that this is how the free market can and should (and is) police itself, rather than relying on government intervention. People like yourself can effectively maintain the moral high ground, when you preach morality, by condemning the sale of crud, and practice morality, by not taking the easy wrong - meaning that you are not resorting to using the coercive force of government for your desired ends. Kudos to you.

[roadcat]

Do you believe this siht?
What's the world coming to?"

Wow, this is raelly hguh.

[Old Jarhead 46]

Yuor dmnsetraotoin was vrey celar, epilcxit and dmenotsrtvaie.

Cgontrltaunaios!

Old Sgare

[zoesmom]

>>>>>"Our message is light-hearted and fun, and any misinterpretation is purely in the eye of the beholder," said Karen Gori, a brand manager for FCUK Fragrance.


So apparently she is accusing us of having dirty minds as well as stupidity.

Dr. Seuss is lighthearted and fun. Intentional representations of foul language and pandering to teenage hormones, lack of maturity, and adolescent rebellion is NOT lighthearted and fun.

Guess what, my 6 year old kid can S-P-E-L-L. And now I apparently can't take her shopping at any of this parent company's retail stores. I think the parent is Dayton-Hudson.

I don't even want to have to attempt to explain to my daughter how some half-witted marketing department could have thought this would be acceptable.

I resent the implication that I am stupid enough to buy this garbage, or allow it to continue anywhere in my community.

Hey Karen Gori - here's a light hearted comment for ya:

fcuk you - and i mean this in the most fun way possible.

[EllaMinnow]

Isn't Target owned by popular Sen. Mark Dayton, D-MN?

Yes.

[WhiteGuy]

It's really easy.

Don't buy merchandise you don't want.

That's right!

You are under no obligation to buy any thing.

If stuff doesn't sell, it will be removed from the shelves.

[Steve_Seattle]

I haven't liked Target since Chip Ganassi fired Eddie Cheever.

[Sandy]

Will you join me by making an extra effort in contacting the Target corporation by taking action?

Sorry, but I have a life.

[weegee]

Threads relating to this have been getting pulled.

Sounds like some moderator has an itchy finger. This is the culture war; people need to know about big business' intent to keep sexualizing children.

Might as well have pulled every discussion of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky too. After all, nice people don't discuss such things.

If these things weren't being pushed into the mainstream, we wouldn't need to address them on FR.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae."

Taht msut be why I msis so mnay of my own tpyos.

[anniegetyourgun]

But just try to wear your JSUS t-shirt to public school....