Trolling generally carries with it a rather negative connotation, but one man is single-handedly doing a pretty decent job of turning this bad rap around. After Target became the brunt of a number of rather ignorant attacks for its decision to move towards gender-neutral labeling of its toy products (apparently, gender equality is an unforgivable sin when it comes to children’s retail), Facebook user Facebook user Mike Melgaard decided he had enough. In a decidedly hilarious (though potentially compromising) move, Melgaard created a counterfeit Target Facebook profile, in which he used the Target logo and pretended to be a member of its customer service team. He then took matters into his own hands, and said what a lot of us wanted to (but didn’t or couldn’t) say.
For nearly a full day, Melgaard managed to address the concerns of disgruntled customers with the same level of absurdity shown in their complaints. He managed to engage some 50 users before finally getting shut down after a 16-hour stint. Speaking with AdFreak, Melgaard admitted that he pulled the stunt mostly for his own amusement. “I definitely side with Target and support their decision wholeheartedly,” he said. “That being said, this was, for me, more about the laughs. I absolutely love satirical humor, and I think America could use a little more laughter.”
In a statement of its own, Target spokeswoman Angie Thompson told USA Today, “At Target, we are committed to providing outstanding guest service to our guests wherever we engage with them — in our stores, online, or on social media. Clearly this individual was not speaking on behalf of Target.” But still, it doesn’t seem as though the retail giant is too upset with Melgaard anyway. After all, how can you get mad at someone who responds to a comment reading, “[My family] will no longer shop and support your PC transgender store,” with, “Kevin, there’s no real nice way to put this, so we at Target will just say it: You’re a real dick.”
You know we were all thinking it.
For more hilarity, see the full glory of Melgaard’s postings here.
