Thanks all, here another good letter.
Burlington Coat Factory Sucks!
http://www.cooperforpresident.com/id350.html Yo. Check this out, Esse. Last night I was watching television, when a commercial for Burlington Coat Factory came on. At first glance, it looked like a typical back-to-school advertisement, featuring teenagers wearing the latest fashions, striking a pose, and other crap. To my utter astonishment, there was a short clip of some dumbass wearing a Che Guevara T-Shirt! I thought I MUST have seen that wrong. After all, the "Che" T-shirt image has been copied and used elsewhere (such as the brilliant "Reagan Revolution" T-shirts).
Half an hour later, the same commercial came on. I paid close attention to it, and sure enough, the kid was wearing a Che shirt. Holy shit. What the hell is wrong with Burlington Coat Factory?
I went to their website (www.coat.com), and tried to get an email address. All they had was an online contact form. Rather than sending an angry complaint email, which would no doubt be deleted immediately, I sent them the following message:
http://www.coat.com/contact/webform1.shtml I just saw your excellent new Back-to-School ad, and I can't tell you how thrilled I was to see that you featured a young man wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt. As a Marxist, I am elated that General Che has become a fashion statement, and I applaud your efforts. I am currently marketing a line of Fidel Castro hatwear, as well as Yassir Arafat exploding suicide belts, and I'd like to know if you would be interested in funding my marketing efforts. Although I am vehemently against capitalism, I am willing to sell my work for "the cause." Best regards, MC
Before patting myself on the back for being the first person to discover this ad, I did a quick Google search for "Burlington Coat Factory Che." It seems that I was NOT the first person to catch this. The blogger who goes by the name Blind Pig wrote an excellent article about it a couple of weeks ago. OK, so I'm second. I'll take what I can get.
When Blind Pig originally saw the ad, he too could not believe his eyes. Fortunately, he has Tivo and was able to stop it at the right point (and take the photo above). I'm adding B.P. to my links page, and you can check out his site here. Great work, and thanks for the photo!
So, with school only days away, where are YOU going to buy your children's all-important revolutionary wear? That's right, Burlington Coat Factory! I'm not sure if they actually SELL the T-shirts, but with so many other stores around, I'm not going to waste my time there to find out. Ever. Fuck 'em.
I realize there are more important issues right now (Islamists murdering children at schools would be one), but at minimum this is just more evidence of the "dumbing down" of America. When these shirts first started sprouting up, I was annoyed. Every goddamn nose-ring, tattooed Moe haircut bitch in my town has one of these. Fine. But whose idea was it to turn Fidel Castro's chief political executioner into a fucking fashion statement?
'Coop
PS: If I get a response, I'll be sure to post it.
I just finished (i.e., on Friday 11-26-04, at 1:52 pm PST,) giving these LaLaLing creeps a call - at 323-664-4400. I asked them if, since they're selling shirts **for infants!!** with mass-murderers on them, they'll be coming out with an Adolph Hitler shirt, a Josef Stalin shirt, a Pol Pot shirt, a Ted Bundy shirt, etc. I was quickly dismissed with an arrogant, "Yah, thank you for expressing your opinion, goodbye" - which clearly meant "We just don't give a damn."
Ahem - perhaps they could use a little more....feedback?
This is an issue of ethics - in other words, of refusing to sell items, even if sales are lucrative, that have ethically-contemptible content. The argument needs to be framed in terms of ethics. LaLaLing needs to feel some HEAT. Publicize this along with the Burlington Coat Factory effort. The latter is a better target though, since it's big and will land the biggest media splash. If we're successful in getting them to back down, the stigma about "Che" shirts will perhaps filter down to smaller stores.
Another thing: If you want to get a shirt that ridicules Guevara (as well as Marx,) then check out the "Mickey Che" and "Skull Che" shirts at Bureaucrash:
http://bureaucrash.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=47&storynum=15
For the record, I'm not affiliated with Freestar Media or Bureaucrash except as a longtime supporter.
