So, Urban Outfitters has this brainstorm to sell a new tee with a six-pointed star very similar to the patches the Jews were forced to wear in the Holocaust (yes, Mel, there was in fact a Holocaust). And not only is this piece of drek tee being sold, but it’s also being sold at a $100 price tag. Have we gone off our rockers?
Age-old PR question is, “is it OK to market something if you know it’ll make headlines?” Answer is, nope, not always.
I never liked Urban Outfitters much when my now 25 year old was 13. Thought the clothes were crummy and prices high. I liked the shattered glass and tenement-like feel of the place for about 5 minutes, and then it felt old real fast.
And, after seeing maybe three dozen Holocaust-related films through the DC JCC in the last two years, I know more than ever that Urban Outfitters did something really dirty. So what’s a good punishment? Forget a fine. I think the marketing and sales team that came up with the idea should be fired and kicked out on the sidewalk naked…no matter how many tees the stores sold or how much free PR they generated. Or maybe they should be forced to wear the same t-shirt for four years straight everywhere they go, without washing it.
My grandparents were so lucky to have avoided the Holocaust and make it to America, but despite their smiling sepia photos, I still retain the vision of Jews as walking skeletons as they emerged, blinking, out of the death camp barracks.
The media is calling the new look Auschwitz Chic. To me it’s beyond pathetic. In fact, I think anyone behind this marketing ploy and anyone who buys this filthy tee should be forced to have a number tattooed on their arm.
That’s what I call real Auschwitz chic.