The Gap has displayed a serious gap in judgment.
On Wednesday — amid a tense presidential election in which President Donald Trump has falsely declared himself the victor — the Gap decided to publish a trite post about Democrats and Republicans being, shucks, friends again.
The post, which has since been deleted, included a GIF of a Gap hoodie in which one side was blue and the other red, which could be “united” by zipping it closed.
“The one thing that we know, is that together we can move forward,” the GIF was captioned with a red and blue heart emoji capping the clueless statement.
New York Times business reporter Sapna Maheshwari took a screenshot of the post and reported that a “spokesperson told me that it was not a real hoodie for sale.”
Maheshwari added more comment from the company in a follow-up tweet:
“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,” the company said.
Regardless of whether the hoodie could be purchased, it did create some kind of a unity on Twitter at least. And by unity, we’re talking Twitter users uniting in their disgust at the brand for offering its shallow take on a tense political divide brimming with deceit. To read the funniest “not now, brands” responses to the Gap’s post, just hate scroll your way down.