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May 13, 2023

No, Target isn’t selling satanic children's clothes

CLAIM: Photos of a goat-headed store mannequin and a girl wearing a black shirt

CLAIM: Photos of a goat-headed store mannequin and a girl wearing a black shirt with a pentagram design show Target is selling a line of satanic-themed children's clothing.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The images were generated with an artificial intelligence text-to-image tool, according to the artist who created them. Target also confirmed it has never sold the merchandise.

THE FACTS: Amid attacks on the beleaguered retail giant over its LGBTQ+ merchandise for Pride month, social media users are circulating a set of synthetic images to claim Target is also selling a new line of children's clothes featuring satanic imagery.

The collage includes a blood red, goat-headed mannequin and a young girl wearing a black shirt with a pentagram. Another image shows two other children wearing red sweaters, each featuring a white goat's head with eyes made to resemble Target's familiar red and white bullseye logo.

"If you are still supporting Target... did you KNOW THIS about them?" wrote a Facebook user who shared the image this week. "Selling satanic symbols on children's apparel???"

"They aren't even hiding it anymore," wrote another Facebook user sharing the post along with the hashtags #BoycottTarget and #SaveTheChildren.

But the photos aren't real. They were made using a sophisticated image-generating program.

Dan Reese, a software developer in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, confirmed in Facebook messages to The Associated Press on Thursday that he created the images over two days last week using a generative AI program developed by Midjourney, a San Francisco-based independent research lab.

His Facebook post from May 26 includes the red goat mannequin and other images being widely shared, as well as about a dozen others of children or mannequins dressed in apparel featuring devils, pentagrams and similar imagery.

"They’re Targeting Our Children," Reese wrote in the post, which is found on AI Art Universe, a Facebook group for showcasing AI-generated art.

Reese said he was inspired to create the images following false reports that Target was selling satanic-themed children's clothes as part of its Pride collection.

"I am a Satanist myself so I thought it would be fun to use AI to explore what Satanic themed kids fashion might actually look like," he wrote in his Facebook message to the AP.

The focus of the prior claims were around Target's inclusion of the brand Abprallen, a London-based company that also sells some occult- and satanic-themed LGBTQ+ clothing and accessories, such as popular pins and shirts featuring the phrase "Satan respects pronouns."

Erik Carnell, the creator of the brand, stressed in a statement posted on Instagram last week that the company had just three items featured in Target's collection, and none bore satanic references.

The items included a sweatshirt featuring a pastel-colored image of a serpent wrapped around a winged staff with the slogan "Cure Transphobia, Not Trans People," a messenger bag with a UFO image and the phrase "Too Queer for Here," and a tote bag with images of planets and the line "We Belong Everywhere," according to a Carnell's statement and an announcement the company made ahead of the launch.

"My work was likely pulled following false accusations of being a Satanist and of marketing my work to children, both claims have been debunked numerous times," Carnell wrote in his statement.

The Minneapolis-based big box retailer didn't respond to requests for comment on the removal of the Abprallen items Thursday, but in a statement last week said it was removing some items because threats against the company were impacting worker safety and wellbeing.

Among the items removed appears to have been an adult-sized Pride T-shirt featuring the drag queen Biblegirl wearing devil horns.

But Target did confirm to the AP that the red goat-headed mannequin and other items portrayed in the images circulating this week aren't offered in its nearly 2,000 stores nationwide. A review of Target's website also didn't turn up any of the purported merchandise.

"Target has never sold these items," the company wrote in an email.

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This is part of AP's effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.