We have not forgotten.
Bad form, Urban Outfitters. Urban Outfitters was trying to sell a Kent State University sweatshirt splattered with red "coloring" for $129 referencing the 1970 shooting that killed four students, and injured nine.
Are your sales so low that you have to divert to using pathetic PR stunts like this? Or was this an item you strategically thought through and believed that people would actually want to wear a low quality, overpriced, ill-fitting sweatshirt with fake blood stains splattered across the Kent State University logo, a university who suffered the horrific tragedy of a school shooting back in 1970?
Shame on you. How dare you trivialize that horrific event, and the lives that that event affected. And the fact that you deny that the splattered red is supposed to represent blood, by stating that it's "part of our sun-faded vintage collection," further exemplifies what an unethical company you are. You can't even cough up the truth when you've been caught.
While I'm too young to have been personally affected by the Kent State University shooting, I was in college at a neighboring university (JMU) when the Virginia Tech shooting occurred, where easily 100 of my friends went.
Columbine. Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. There are (unfortunately) others. I'm guessing you chose Kent University as you probably thought enough time had passed and that you'd be able to get away with it. Well, you thought wrong. Just because more time has passed does not mean that the victims of the Kent State University shooting deserve less respect.
Everyone has a mix of opinions regarding politics, guns, shootings, mental health, etc. Folks, I implore you to put that stuff aside, as I think we can all agree that this was a tasteless move. We can't ban people from their first amendment rights, but we CAN take a stand and say what we will and will not support through the means of our dollars. Every time you spend a dollar you are casting a vote. If you agree that what Urban Outfitters did was wrong, then purchase your funky hipster clothes elsewhere.
Show the surviving victims, and honor the ones who are no longer with us that we have not forgotten.
neVer forgeT.
