Manatee Gray: Target Apologizes For Plus Sized Error

April 6, 2013

Manatees are sometimes known as sea cows and can weigh as much as 1,300 pounds.

Oh. No. Target. Didn't.

Susan Clemens was just minding her own business and shopping away on Target.com when she noticed that a dress she was looking at was labeled "Dark Heather Gray" for the standard sizes but the plus sized version of that same dress was labeled " Manatee Gray".  Whoops!  The good news is that for once, the plus size version of the dress was actually cheaper than the smaller sizes.  Go figure! (No pun intended!)  The bad news is obvious. The words plus size and Manatee on the same label just should not happen.

Surprised at such an offensive label, Clemens took to the web and tweeted her discovery:

Needless to say, the social media aficionados went wild retweeting, posting ,commenting, and sharing and soon it caught the attention of national news outlets.

Target executives were quick to send a tweet out apologizing for the oversight:

@suZen We apologize for this unintentional oversight & never intend to offend our guests. We've heard you, and we're working to fix it ASAP.

A spokesperson for Target, Jessica Deede, explained to media outlets that Manatee gray is a seasonal color that is used in a variety of product lines in Target stores. She went on to state that the error on the dress labels was a result of a miscommunication between two teams working with the product.

"This was an unintentional oversight,” she said. “We will take this opportunity to learn.”

Clemens has accepted Target's apology and thinks they have handled the controversy well.

"I am still a fan." she says.

-Feature photo courtesy of  j.reed