"Last week, international retailer Urban Outfitters offered the world a provocative hate-inspiring T-shirt with a blatant anti-Israel message that offends Jews, Israelis, and anyone interested in the truth. Perhaps worse, it glorifies child abuse and exploitation, as well as terrorism.posted by ericb at 1:18 PM on May 28, 2008
The T-shirt portrays a young Palestinian youth with a keffiya around his neck, clutching an AK-47 in three images. Also pictured on the shirt are the Palestinian territories, and the Palestinian flag. The shirt’s bottom is emblazoned with the word 'Victimized' embellished with a red blood image threading through the word. Numerous emails and blogs picked up on the item. A barrage of complaints to Urban Outfitters ensued.
....In 2004, Urban Outfitters was criticized for merchandising a T-shirt with the slogan, 'Everyone loves a Jewish Girl' with dollar signs and shopping bags as the image. This played on the stereotype of a 'Jewish American Princess' with money being the most important aspect of a Jewish girl’s life. After criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, this item was pulled from store shelves and replaced with a shirt sporting the same slogan but no image.
In December of 2007, great controversy erupted over another Urban Outfitters item. The company’s online and print catalog featured the black and white 'Arafat Keffiya' pictured on a young man and sold as “the Anti-War Scarf.” At the time, the scarf was associated with supporters of Al Fatah, Hamas, and Al Qaeda, and was equally familiar as an icon on the videos of beheadings, and celebrations after the murders of 9/11.
....About two months later, Urban Outfitters began reselling the Arafat Keffiya, but now in psychedelic colors. Prominent displays were set up at front of the stores. Evidently, stuck with a glut of 'Anti-War' Scarves, the merchandisers decided to send the black and white keffiyas to be dyed in pink, turquoise, and yellow."
"Liberal politics and mass consumption are difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile....So it should come as quite a bore to learn that Urban Outfitters, is actually run by an evil conservative genius named Richard Hayne, who takes the 28 bucks you spend on an Obamaniac shirt and parlays it into a fatty donation to the Republican Party. Beneficiaries have included former Senator Rick Santorum. How truly ironic!"Square Who Got Hip to Urban Chic
"It seems unlikely that many of the staff or the customers know much about the owner and boss of Urban - a brilliant retailer called Richard Hayne whose views would be a serious risk to sales were his profile to rise.posted by ericb at 1:26 PM on May 28, 2008 [4 favorites]
Hayne started the business in the 1970s, taking it public in 1993 and bringing it to Britain in 1998. He is still the biggest shareholder and a seriously rich man - a billionaire by some estimates. You only have to look to see that there is nothing remotely hip about him. There is surely a bigger gulf between Hayne and his customer base than any other High Street retailer.
Shopping in Urban makes you feel like you are somewhere radically Left-wing, an antidote to the corporate blandness of The Gap. But Hayne is a stanch conservative who donates money to Republican politicians, not least Rick Santorum, a now failed Senator whose views on homosexuality are both bizarre and old-fashioned.
Hayne doesn't give many interviews precisely because he's afraid that college slackers who get to know him will suddenly realise that buying his clothes is like giving cash to George Bush.
Once described as projecting a 'Dick Cheney-esque aura of no-nonsense grayflannel gravitas', Hayne must be the only retailer whose expansion plans depend on no one finding out who he really is.
Despite the strife in the sector, Urban just beat Wall Street profit expectations yet again. So far, the illusion is holding up perfectly."
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posted by Burhanistan at 9:32 AM on May 28, 2008 [1 favorite]