Urban Outfitters recently mass produced a Kent State sweatshirt that has cause quite controversy. No, it's not the fact that a sweatshirt that looks like it has been sitting in the bottom of your dad closet for 30 years and costs $129. It's the fact that this particular "sun dried" sweatshirt series shows what looks like could be blood splatter all around the shirt. What normally would seem as an ugly shirt, actually has struck a nerve with those who remember the 1970 Kent State killing.
If you're too young to remember, or haven't been taught about it class, in 1970 four Kent State students were brutally murdered by the National Guard during a Vietnam War protest. Infamous pictures of the students laying on the ground while others cry out for help have been shown online and in textbooks for many years.
While the Kent State shooting wasn't the first thing on everyone's mind, it sure is now. Well, actually being upset with Urban Outfitters is the number one thing on everyones mind. Urban Outfitters issued an apology stating that the shirt simply has "sun dried" speckles all over it. They never intended to release a sweatshirt that would be viewed that distasteful.
USA Today Online stated that the company has indeed taken the sweatshirt off the market and is destroying the remaining shirts. But when attempting to purchase the shirt last week, it said that is was sold out. I actually found several of the sweatshirts on ebay going for as high as $600.
So, was this a ploy to get attention for UO, or an idiot sitting at a computer thinking he and or she is funny for trying to pull a stunt like that? Who knows, not many people today use common sense when it comes to our societies sensitivity. But, we also have come to realize that bad publicity is still publicity. We all hated Miley Cyrus during the 2013 VMA's saying how ridiculous she looked and how we wondered what in the hell she was doing. But we did exactly what she wanted… we started talking about her, viewing her music videos, buying her songs, talking about her "around the water cooler". We played into her web, and now she is probably making more money than me or anyone else in this school will make.
So, this one is for you to decide. Was this a horribly distasteful yet genius publicity stunt, or someone who just needs to lose their job because of their stupidity?
Source:http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/09/15/kent-state-university-blood-sweatshirt/15659799/
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