NEW YORK Target Corp. on Wednesday elevated Michael Francis to executive vice president and chief marketing officer. He had been executive vice president of marketing.
Francis is credited for the Minneapolis-based discounters creative marketing, including the retailers pop-up shops in Manhattan and an idea he had to paint hermit crab shells with the companys bulls-eye logo for The American Spirit Awards, an event at the beach in Los Angeles.
In his new role, Francis will be responsible for all marketing functions, as well as strategy, research, community relations and target.com.
I’m left asking myself: What happened to Target’s Values: Corporate Responsibility and Protecting the Environment?
Very frustrated by this story, I contacted Target’s guest relations and received a prompt reply. After a couple emails I received a phone call from Joan at Guest Relations. She and I spoke about the situation and I explained to her about the reasons why we oppose the painting of hermit crab shells. These shells were EMPTY… no crabs were harmed during the painting. I did not discover what happened to the shells after the event. Joan did assure me that she would pass along my concerns and thanked me for making them aware of how painting hermit crab shells negatively impacts the environment and the hermit crabs living in the wild as well as how it sends the wrong message to consumers that hermit crabs objects and not living creatures.
Please feel free to contact Target about this matter as well. Many voices have more impact than one lone voice. No need to be angry or threatening as they have been very receptive to me and definitely wanted to know my concerns and the reasons behind them. The email address is guest.relations at target dot com
and the phone number is: (800) 440-0680 I spoke with Joan.