When it comes to supplying the hipster masses with the unique outfits they need to sustain their fights against mainstream society, I think it’s safe to say that Urban Outfitters dominates the market (RIP American Apparel).
In all seriousness, this week, the clothing corporation known for producing vintage gear with an ironic or sarcastic twist is under major scrutiny after not only coming out with an ill-advised product, but also releasing a sub-par apology, which essentially insulted the public’s intelligence.
A few days ago, reports emerged that Urban Outfitters had released what they called a “vintage” Kent State sweatshirt. The problem with said collegiate sweatshirt was the red stain on the center of product — a clear and crude allusion to the infamous 1970 murders.
For those of you who don’t know what happened at Kent State in 1970, some panicked members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a group of college students, who were protesting the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.
The National Guard members were sent to preserve the peace as the protests commenced, but unfortunately, what started as a day for peace ended in bloodshed as over a period of 13 seconds. The guardsmen fired 67 rounds, killing four students and injuring nine more.
Chaos ensued as the national media swarmed to cover the story, placing even more public pressure on President Nixon to end his Cambodian Campaign.
Forty-four years later, Urban Outfitters has leveraged this dark event as a stylish design element on one of its newly-released pieces.
Public outrage over the item caused tons of people to take to the Internet to voice their negative opinions of the sweatshirt. These voices included the officials at Kent State University themselves, who, in a public statement, accused the leaders of Urban Outfitters of being ignorant.
The university statement outlined,
This item is beyond poor taste and trivializes a loss of life that still hurts the Kent State community today. We invite the leaders of this company as well as anyone who invested in this item to tour our May 4 Visitors Center, which opened two years ago, to gain perspective on what happened 44 years ago and apply its meaning to the future.
Well said by the academic institution that has been dealing with this horrible incident for the last four decades.
Although Urban Outfitters removed the product in the aftermath of the complaints received, it failed to release a strong apology.
In fact, the company didn’t really apologize at all, claiming that it was sorry people interpreted the product in such a way. As per Urban Outfitters,
The one-of-a-kind item was purchased as part of our sun-faded vintage collection. There is no blood on this shirt nor has this item been altered in any way. The red stains are discoloration from the original shade of the shirt and the holes are from natural wear and fray.
Yes, you read that correctly. Urban Outfitters claims that the clear blood stains on the sweatshirt were unintentional. This is the epitome of coming home to your parents’ house drunk, throwing up and then claiming you simply ate bad Chinese food in the morning.
This was a dumb public relations move by a company. Urban Outfitters simply should have come out and apologized for the actions and claimed that the only intention was to support the memory of the student protesters lost on that fateful day in 1970.
In this era of school-shooting disasters, the last thing anyone wants to wear is a product that alludes to such. Perhaps Urban thought the generational gap between its market and those who remember 1970 would provide enough room to push such a product.
Either way, it’s not like anyone in our generation would ever wear a bloodstained Columbine High School or Virginia Tech shirt. Whether or not Urban Outfitters attempted to give a good sentiment to a dark day, shame on the company for the product and for the poor public relations dealings.
No comments:
Post a Comment