Gap removes ‘unity’ hoodie tweet after backlash

Gap's tweet
Following Election Day, Gap tried to use a hoodie as a bipartisan unifier, but instead met with such intense backlash that the message was immediately deleted.
On Wednesday morning, Gap tweeted an image of a trademark Gap-branded hoodie; one half was red, the other blue. “The one thing we know, is that together, we can move forward,” the brand wrote in the message, which included a blue heart next to a red one. But for a country painfully divided, the tweet rang false, and social media slammed Gap for trying to take advantage of the current political climate by selling more product.
Within an hour, Gap had removed the tweet.
“From the start we have been a brand that bridges the gap between individuals, cultures and generations. The intention of our social media post, that featured a red and blue hoodie, was to show the power of unity. It was just too soon for this message. We remain optimistic that our country will come together to drive positive change for all,” a spokeswoman said in a message. She later confirmed that the “unity” hoodie was not a real product, and that the image was created for use on social media.
This is not the first time Gap has tried to attach more meaning to one of its product lines. Last year, for its holiday campaign, a red Gap sweatshirt had a starring role in a relationship between a mother and son. Yet this year’s flub is a harder message to swallow for fed up consumers.
Ironically, according to company filings, the majority of Gap’s merchandise is not made within the U.S., but instead produced in countries including Vietnam and China. The company’s 10-K filing notes that in fiscal 2019 “substantially all purchases, by dollar value, were from factories outside the United States.”
Contributing: Brad Johnson, Garett Sloane