Retailer Advertises 'Wife-Beaters,' Wishes It Hadn't
Adrants reader John Brock sends us this precious example of how not to use slang in advertsing. Massachusetts discount chain Building 19 ran an ad in a flyer promoting wife-beater t-shirts. Oops. Out came the cause groups on that one with Jane Do Inc. spokewoman telling Boston's WCVB, ""I can't say what I thought. I know what I thought, but I can't say out loud what I thought." We know what she thought: "You chauvinistic asswipes! How the fuck could you degrade women so harshly glamorizing low life, trailer park scum who beat the shit out of their wives on a daily basis?"
Building 19 apologies came fast from spokesman Jerry Ellis who said, "They were right. It was awful and I am sorry it happened. It's a slang expression, a street expression, but we should have known better not to use it. I am supposed to read every word. Sometimes it's busy or I am lazy. We are working on a retraction." Refreshingly, that comment definitely didn't go through the press release filter.
Comments
"Sometimes it's busy or I am lazy"
I can't think of a better comment from a spokesperson. It makes me wonder how their financials look.
Whoa! A two-fer: what not to do in the first place, AND how to implement disaster-PR recovery. This is worth noting in our agency's blog.
They are probably great. This chain of privately owned salvage stores is a local area institution.
At the risk of sounding unintentionally misogynistic, what a lot of fuss over nothing. It's a tongue-in-cheek, commonly used expression which does not advocate or condone any violence against women. Ridiculous.
Whoa! A two-fer: what not to do in the first place, AND how to implement disaster-PR recovery. This is worth noting in our agency's blog.
Whoa! A two-fer: what not to do in the first place, AND how to implement disaster-PR recovery. This is worth noting in our agency's blog.
They are probably great. This chain of privately owned salvage stores is a local area institution.
At the risk of sounding unintentionally misogynistic, what a lot of fuss over nothing. It's a tongue-in-cheek, commonly used expression which does not advocate or condone any violence against women. Ridiculous.
Nonetheless, and I say this mindful of the irony: if I were in Ellis' shoes, I'd have made the same immediate, forthright apology. After all, most of his customers are women. But I don't have to.
No big darn deal. Anyone with any common sense, when they read it, will think of it as a crack on those assholes that beat woman . Actually, the advocates could have used it to their advantage instead of acting up about it. PR should have stood their ground on this one. Instead they caved.
I just slugged the wife in the kisser. Nice!
I think everybody is taking this much too seriously. "Wife Beaters", though an unfortunate nickname, is a common, very common, nickname for these kind of shirts. If Building 19 was selling them in bundles with a sledgehammer and put "Beat your stupid whore wife with this" then I would understand some outrage. Building 19's schtick is that they are "unprofessional" and don't try to sugar coat their product line, like walmart or target, etc. Slang is part of their schtick and "Wife beater" is extremely common slang for these shirts as they look like something the typical beer-swilling wife-beater would wear with mustard-stained sweatpants. It is a shot at wife-beaters, NOT a call to action in favor of wife beating. Everybody needs to grow the hell up. The world is not going to (and should not)pander to ultra political correctness just because some uptight asses need everyting to be 100% sterile