In an attempt to avoid the wrath of social media, Walmart has taken extra steps to pull as many offensive Halloween costumes from its website—an effort that hasn’t been completely successful, as proven by the slew of unflattering headlines this year.
According to an article by Bloomberg, the retail giant has enlisted its "trust and safety compliance team" to carefully examine its inventory of Halloween costumes, which is comprised of 40,000-plus pieces sold online.
Bao Nguyen, head of media relations for Walmart Global eCommere, told the publication that he and his team scour headlines and online products every day to identify any costumes that might be deemed distasteful. It’s a task that is becoming increasingly necessary as third-party vendors often release designs that receive backlash.
“We want Halloween to be fun and to be a surprise. But we don’t want to belittle serious incidents,” Nguyen told Bloomberg. “We do not want to offend anyone, especially during Halloween."
So would you like know which costumes were pulled before they became PR nightmares? Of course you do. One was a Caitlyn Jenner parody comprised of white hotpants and a wig; another was a Cecil Lion head that came with a dentist smock; and then there was a sex-themed vampire getup named “Down for the Count.” SMH.
