Hmmmm... I'm gonna start by sayin' that I personally, as an Asian-American, was NOT offended by the A&F shirt design. I actually thought it was pretty clever. However, I DO understand where a lot of the criticism is coming from. In the end, though, I think that people take too many things way too seriously. I mean, the way the shirts were done, it was obvious that they weren't trying to be offensive, but humorous. I kind of compare it to an episode of South Park, where the humor is done so tongue in cheek, so ridiculously, that it shouldn't be construed as racist, but as satire. If they printed a shirt that had one of those characters, and the caption just said "Chink" or "gook," that would be a different situation. I believe that people have to be able to laugh at themselves every once in a while... to be able to not take everything so seriously.
Of course, that is my OWN personal belief. It's pretty obvious, however, that there would be a negative reaction at large to those shirts, and Abercrombie & Fitch would have had to be not thinking at all to think that those shirts would not cause a reaction. There is no way that A&F, as a huge American company, did not think that these designs would cause such a reaction. Yes, I'm saying that they did it on purpose. I'm thinking that they did it for the publicity. They have always been trying to push the envelope in their catalogs, trying to be cutting edge, to be controversial. So, I'm sayin' they did it intentionally, with the attitude that "any publicity is good publicity." If that's the case, then they got their brand in the national spotlight. Mission accomplished. I'm not saying that I condone it, but if that's what they were trying to accomplish, then they achieved it. I've also heard a more cynical view that they released these shirts because they WERE trying to be racist. The argument goes like this... if you look at their catalogs, and all of their publications, you only see good-looking WHITE college-aged guys and girls. Is this their target demographic group? Maybe they were TRYING to get Asians to view the company negatively because they wanted us to stop buying their clothes. Yeah... it kind of makes sense, but the last I heard, major corporations have only one goal in mind... to make as much money as possible. With so many Asian-American teens buying A&F, the company would face a huge decline in sales... at least on the west coast... so this explanation is unlikely true. Eh well, at this point I'm just rambling... sorry for taking up so much bandwidth... I just think this issue is kind of important, and relevant to this group, cuz we're in the age-group that A&F targets most heavily... bChoi! Oh yeah, if you haven't seen any of the shirts, here's a link where you can see one of them: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/3086058.htm -----Original Message----- From: -=Psykoral=- [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 2:30 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [D] nrr: Ambercrombie Shirts (was: ok, who the heck designed this trophy !??!) Which is exactly why I said I was surprized to see such a company as AF put this product out... Again, I expected it to come from a no name company with no standards (or morals) -=Psykoral=- Raven Productions http://www.technorealm.net http://www.ravenproductions.org ----- Original Message ----- From: "Maria Chang" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "-=Psykoral=-" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 2:03 PM Subject: Re: [D] nrr: Ambercrombie Shirts (was: ok, who the heck designed this trophy !??!) > Well, the difference between your chris rock example > and af is that one is a company that relies on the > approval of millions of consumers, the other is a bad > ass comedian. and comedians get away with some pretty > harsh shit, that i too find really funny sometimes. > but what bugs me about af is that NO ONE in the > company stopped and thought, 'hmmm.. this might make > people mad.' i mean DUH!!! and you know that shirt > went through a lot of people before hitting the > stores. any business person knows that if you're > trying to make your product popular, you're going to > have it appeal to as many people as possible, unless > you've got some some special rebel cause. and af is > anything but a rebellious product...in my opinion. > and then their retarded PR guy said they thought it > would be funny.. which is just a dumb thing to say > when you've already pissed off thousands of people. > > sure it may be seen as uptight to criticize a joke > about ethnicity, but i think that af should think > about the effects their products have on their image. > chris rock is an individual, af is not. i think the > shirt is a statement about their entire company. > > my 4 cents. > > -maria > > > > > --- -=Psykoral=- <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Yeah I heard about that whole T-shirt thing... > > I think the one your talking about involves > > a comment on the way some Asian's pronounce > > certain words... Now, while I have nothing against > > any races as a whole, I find this shirt absolutly > > hillarious!!!!! > > I mean come on, that's what jokes are about, > > exploiting the > > obvious... I'd laugh just as hard if they made a > > shirt about > > "Living in a trailer park, sleeping with thier > > sister, mayonayse > > sandwitch eating, poor ass white folks" ...as per > > Chris Rock. > > > > It was only a matter of time before a shirt like > > this was to be > > released... The market value of comedy will always > > be high. > > The only thing I'm surprized by is that it was > > Ambercrombie > > that did it. I would have thought it would be some > > no name > > company that has no reputation yet. :cP > > > > -=Psykoral=- > > Raven Productions > > http://www.technorealm.net > > http://www.ravenproductions.org > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Maria Chang" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 11:51 AM > > Subject: Re: [D] nrr: ok, who the heck designed this > > trophy !??! > > > > > > > HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHHAAA!!!!!!! > > > > > > okay, now who the fuck approved that photo ?? > > > > > > somebody need's to get fired. > > > > > > btw, did you all hear about the t-shirt from > > > abercrombie and fitch that's been getting heat > > because > > > of its racism? "wong laundry" > > > i hate that store. > > > > > > -maria > > > > > > > > > > > > --- natasha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > LMFAO > > > > > > > > > > > > > > http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020423/168/1funr.html > > > > > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ > > > Do You Yahoo!? > > > Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and > > more > > > http://games.yahoo.com/ > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more > http://games.yahoo.com/ > ___________________________________________________________________ The D mailing list http://www.djdenise.com/ ___________________________________________________________________ The D mailing list http://www.djdenise.com/
