T Shirt

How NOT to deal with a PR crisis: call complainants ‘ugly feminists’ & tell them ‘get a life’

Ooops. Bit of a PR disaster going on right now. On Friday I blogged about a T shirt with the offensive slogan “No + Rohypnol = yes”. There was outrage about it on Twitter and the company concerned received numerous complaints.

See http://fwords.co.uk/2011/10/07/another-day-another-offensive-t-shirt-for-thugs-%E2%80%93-and-this-time-it%E2%80%99s-about-how-rape-is-fun/

It seems that there has been a degree of damage limitation: one of those who complained has reported that he has received a written apology. I have not had a reply to my complaint but maybe it’s in the post. Anyway apparently the reply from the company, Chargrilled, says it does not endorse sexual violence, it has removed the T shirt in question from sale and it will be speaking to its product designers to make them aware that “this kind of message is unacceptable”.
Anyway, so far, so good. Someone at the company has had some PR training. However, the good done by that sensible piece of crisis management has been undone by an ill-judged tweet from one Charlie Shiner (Twitter handle @charlieshiner), who is believed to be the founder of the company.

Poor Mr Shiner was perhaps feeling a bit grumpy at being picked on about his T shirt, which he seems to regard as a bit of fun. Rather than leave it to the PR department to handle things, and either maintain a discreet silence or offer an intelligent, thoughtful response, as he should have done, Shiner chose to gob off on Twitter.

“Our T shirts are meant to amuse not to offend,” he wrote earlier today. “We are sorry if you don´t have a sense of humour. Get a life.”

Oops. Bad move. Someone in the company should really have sat on the unfortunate Shiner at this point and taped his hands together to prevent him accessing a computer. But they didn’t and things got much worse.

“Anyone out there who does not like my t-shirts, I really don’t care,” pronounced Shiner this afternoon. “You don’t have to buy them. They weren’t meant for ugly feminists.”

Ah, so they are meant for… other men who think that women are ugly feminists and that it’s OK to drug women in order to get laid?

Silly man. I feel he hasn’t heard the end of this.

Another day, another offensive T shirt for thugs – and this time it’s about how rape is fun

I thought I’d written about as much as one non-fashion-conscious woman could write on the subject of T shirts after blogging about the Topman products that many said glamorised domestic violence and treated women as animals.

http://fwords.co.uk/2011/09/14/is-this-t-shirt-a-deliberate-trivialisation-of-domestic-violence/ and http://fwords.co.uk/2011/09/14/attention-turns-to-%E2%80%9Ctax-avoidance%E2%80%9D-as-topman-withdraws-t-shirts-from-sale/

But no – tonight, just as I was about to switch off the computer and go and do something else, Twitter started to discuss an offensive new offering from another company. This time it’s a T with the slogan “No + Rohypnol = Yes”.

Now, you could argue – and some did – that in the case of the Topman Ts, no offence was intended; it was just a bit of fun; it wasn’t intended to refer specifically to domestic violence. I think it will be harder for the makers of this latest example to use that justification. I’m not sure what other activity could possibly be referred to by the Rohypnol slogan. Under what circumstances could the use of Rohypnol be a bit of fun?

I don’t think I’m even going to mention the name of the manufacturer, cos I suspect they’d like that. If you want to know more, search “rape T shirts” on Twitter.

The upshot of the Topman controversy was that the company withdrew the product (and, it has to be said, did so PDQ). They had the sense, and the PR expertise, to understand damage limitation. I wonder if this latest lot will take the same approach. They are best known for their adverts in lads’ mags, where I imagine little offence is taken. Possibly they have been doing this sort of thing for years and no-one has noticed.

But it looks like the Rohypnol slogan which, let’s face it, even most men must find lacking in good taste, is about to get the company wider publicity which it might or might not find to its benefit.

I wasn’t able to save a picture of the product from the company’s website, but if you see one of the burly, inarticulate, under-achieving gorillas who frequent our streets on a Saturday night walking down the road wearing one, I’m sure you’ll recognise it. It’ll be the T shirt that says, in other words, “I fink rape’s funny”.

PS Here’s another blog post on the subject, explaining far more intelligently than me why this product is so offensive. http://fortyshadesofgrey.blogspot.com/2011/10/another-hilarious-t-shirt.html

Is this T-shirt a deliberate trivialisation of domestic violence?

I’m struggling to decide whether the Topman T-shirt that’s been causing a stir today is a deliberate allusion to, and therefore trivialisation of, domestic violence; or whether it was intended to be worn as a kind of self-parody. Men, after all, are stereotyped for their ability to apologise for a whole host of offences, many of them minor, with the catch-all “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it”.

I imagine Topman’s defence will be just that – that by wearing the T-shirt, men will be effectively taking the piss out of themselves for being such dysfunctional individuals. In other words, it’s humorous banter.

But the reference to “you provoked me” does suggest violence in particular is the implied offence. No-one says “you provoked me” to justify not doing the washing up, or leaving the loo seat up again.

And let’s be fair, a lot of Topman customers probably lack the intellect or level of self-awareness to wear slogans on their clothing for the purposes of self-parody.

I’ve always disliked clothing that carries slogans and logos. It seems such an unimaginative way of declaring one’s allegiances; it’s saying “I don’t have any ideas or personality of my own so I’ll wear someone else’s ideas to try and create an identity for myself”.

If the intention of Topman designers really was to send young men out in public trivialising domestic violence, this T-shirt is tasteless at best. And even more so when worn by the type of intellectually vacant thug that one imagines will be the customer most likely to be attracted by it.

There’s some interesting debate on Twitter at the moment (#topman), with many outraged by this T-shirt and others arguing it’s a bit of fun and there are plenty of more offensive slogans and items of clothing available. Any opinions?

For more on this subject, here’s a link to a blog that focuses on the whole issue of Topman’s T-shirts and their alleged vulgarity. http://meowcake.blogspot.com/2011/02/vulgarity-of-topman.html

Here’s the link to the product on the company’s website. I wonder if it will still be there by the end of the day.

http://www.topman.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=0&viewAllFlag=&catalogId=33056&storeId=12555&productId=2650690&langId=-1&categoryId=&searchTerm=T%20shirts&pageSize=20