Urban Outfitters channels the Holocaust — again?

Via Bloomberg

Once is an accident, maybe. Twice is... suspect.

After being called out for a t-shirt design that some found reminiscent of the Star of David patch German Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust, the Anti-Defamation League has brought public attention to this tapestry.

In a similarity that is much stronger than the t-shirt in the previous scandal, this textile seems to mimic both the pink triangle the Nazis used to identify men arrested as homosexuals and the grey striped uniforms of the death camps.

Via Instinct

One can only hope that this is a terrible coincidence and not someone's sick idea of a hip cultural reference. But so far, there doesn't seem to be any apology (or response of any kind) by Urban Outfitters.

Thanks to Laura for the tip.

Crate & Barrel asks forgiveness for "beggar" wallet

Adfreak reports that this dreadful "Lucky Beggar Wallet" has been pulled from Crate & Barrel with the  apology, "We made a bad decision when we purchased this product". (The original designer is still selling it.)

The homeless have been the target of quite a bit of high-profile ridicule this year. There was that time when fashionistas found it amusing to pose with a street person for a photo op during NY Fashion Week. And let's not forget the high-larious video premiered at Justin Timberlake's wedding. And the guy who was gifted footwear by an NYPD officer, who ended up becoming an internet punching bag when he didn't keep wearing them. Oh yeah, and "hobojacketing" is a thing now.

In context, this is just the tip of a very ugly iceberg.

The designer of the iconic NYC coffee cup it's based on died just a couple of years ago. The design is now owned by Solo Cup. I wonder what they think of this?

F'd Ad Fridays: Sexy teenage holocaust victim Halloween costume

I don't think you can sink much lower than this "Anne Skank"costume:

Lisa Wade writes in Sociological Images, "The Halloween revelers who made the choice to sexualize and laugh at this 15-year-old victim of the holocaust are graduate students in the Creative Writing program at Florida State University."

Probably the cleverest sick posthumous OBL ad you will see

Yes, it's still tasteless, but at least it's intelligently tasteless enough to pull me out of my self-imposed "don't join the Bin Laden death party" moratorium*:



Yes, it appears to be a brandless spec piece. But it may turn out to be a stealth campaign. Who knows? It still managed to surprise me — unlike this one.

Via Illegal Advertising

*For the record, I'm glad he's out of commission, but I don't celebrate revenge killing.

Fartvertising

The world's oldest recorded joke is a fart joke, from 1900 BC, so I guess they will always be with us.

Add some advertising students to the mix, and you get this campaign from Cuca Escola de Criativos, in Brazil (via AoTW):

Tagline: "Life is hard. Prepare your stomach." It's for an antacid.

Cute campaign, kids. It's a gas.