Isn't this just an example of having too long a leash on the assistant account exec manning the customer relations emails? No seasoned pro would make such an broad statement about an entire medium in this situation. This same complaint could have come from the Akins County Mother's Club, and should have been addressed the same way - by focusing on the message, not the medium.

no way an junior acct exec was allowed to talk to the NYTIMES. this is target's policy and the message was surely approved. but you are right, it seems as amateur and off base as any inexperienced agency drone.

I agree no hack talked to target. The hack responded to an e-gripe from Shaping Youth, some fringe parenting blog, who then starting hollerin' about target not respecting non-traditional media. At the time, I'm sure the intern or whoever didn't think it was a big deal. New York Times got wind of it from the blog, then contacted Target for the newspaper story. That's when the big guns came in to clean up the mess. I agree this is totally a policy, which is why the rep who spoke to NYT had to varify the policy, but I don't think a seasoned pro would have communicated it to a media outlet, even a nontraditional one. Just goes to show that no media line call or email is too unimportant to be taken lightly.