Target Pulls Soda With Racial Image

By Jones, Ayana

Tribune Staff Writer

The retailer recently started carrying the product, produced for decades

Target has come under fire for selling a watermelon soda that has controversial images.

Manufactured by Miami, Fla.-based Cawy Bottling Co., the soda can depicts an image of Black girl with ponytails eating watermelon on one side and an image of a white boy on the other.

Controversy swirled after Paolo Walker, a video producer from Still Here Harlem Productions Inc., saw the product on the shelves of a Target store located at 225th Street in Harlem, N.Y.

The producer filmed the soda on store shelves and surveyed store customers - many of whom were offended by the imagery because it reminded them of past racist depictions of Black children.

An online video blast of their findings led to the Cawy watermelon soda being pulled from Target locations.

According to Target spokesperson Jana O'Leary, the retailer pulled the product off stores shelves earlier this month. This summer, Target began carrying the item in 35 of its 1,700 locations.

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