Companies Just Can’t Resist Juneteenth Marketing

Juneteenth as a federal holiday is still young, but ever-enterprising companies already have found crass ways to capitalize on it (all under the guise of social-justice-adjacent marketing).

President Biden declared the federal holiday in 2021 amid racial tensions heightened by George Floyd’s death. Originally a Texas state tradition celebrating the emancipation of the last slaves in the Union, Juneteenth is America’s newest national holiday. Corporate America is still figuring out how to navigate it — evidently. 

Some of the holiday-themed products — “It’s the freedom for me” cozies and Juneteenth Mix & Mingle Bingo (with a square for “loves to watch sports on television”) — would seem to fall short of worthy ways to commemorate the end of slavery. One Washington Post columnist issued a PSA on Twitter that “Juneteenth is not a summer Kwanzaa,” as some companies have simply worked the colors of the Pan-African flag into their designs for Juneteenth-themed merchandise.

Walmart’s Juneteenth ice cream — cheesecake- and red-velvet-flavored, with the trademark symbol on the word “Juneteenth” — was pulled from shelves last year for being “tone deaf.” It’s unclear if Juneteenth rubber duckies will become a seasonal staple.

A local paper in Washington, D.C., the Georgetowner, promoted the holiday this weekend with a now-deleted photo of two white women sipping rosé on a bed of roses with the caption, “Happy Juneteenth Weekend!” That, apparently, was not a good Juneteenth message and prompted the following statement: “Since we wished everyone a ‘Happy Juneteenth Weekend!,’ we obviously should have run the picture accompanying our story on the ‘Juneteenth Foundation’s Third Annual Freedom Festival’ rather than the one on the ‘Rosé All Day’ celebration.”

It remains to be seen whether the holiday will be completely commercialized. It’s a fine line for corporations to walk; so far, they’re stumbling.