World Net Daily is reporting that Solid Gold Bomb, a clothing company based in Worcester, Massachusetts may be forced to close its door due to a backlash from consumers over a set of offensive t-shirts that virtually shut down the company's sales.
The shirts, which were a play on the British World War II slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On" sported messages such as "Keep Calm and Rape Them," "Keep Calm and Knife Her," and "Keep Calm and Choke Her."
The shirts also sparked outrage toward Amazon UK for carrying the product.
“In what society is this even acceptable?" demanded one commenter identified as "Anonymoosh". "And why is Amazon listing these? There is no possible justification including a misplaced sense of irony for wearing a T-shirt with this message on it.”
“I am sick and tired of the perpetuation of rape culture," writes "NinetyWt". "Can you not think for one second about how assault victims feel when seeing something like this ‘rape them’ T-shirt? Can you not see how this contributes to the view that it’s okay to rape other people!? This is not the kind of product I expect to see on Amazon. Vile and disgusting.”
Solid Gold Bomb was hit even harder when outrage over the shirts brought the business to a standstill.
“It’s devastating, the majority of our sales stopped,” said owner Michael Fowler, 41, to The Age.
Fowler, who blames the shirts on a "computer error" says he may not be able to make payroll on Friday and could be forced to shut down his business.
He has published a formal apology on the company's website, saying "I am sorry. As the party responsible within our company for scripting and creating this automated process that created the matched slogans for this 'Keep Calm' series, I apologize for the offensive response this has created across the world."
He continued: "No words can express how I feel about what has occurred and in no way do I condone or promote this serious issue. I will offer a more in depth explanation of cause to explain what and how this occurred. Both myself and our company and its associated Solid Gold Bomb brand have never had any intention of the spread of violent slogans or even poor taste humor t-shirts. This was a computer error of my creation and I accept my responsibility in the matter."
The apology then launches into an elaborate explanation of how the computer error occurred, but not everyone is buying it.
As Ms. Magazine's Stacy Archambault explains: "He claims the issue was the result of a program designed to utilize a 'Keep Calm and [Transient Verb] [Direct Object]' format that relies on a dictionary to spit out combinations, and that thousands of these variations accumulate on their large servers before being produced. However, Fowler fails to explain how so many blatantly offensive slogans were 'accidentally' produced and featured on Amazon UK. It’s impossible to believe that there isn’t a single person in the entire company in charge of quality control."
Caroline Dinenage, a member of the British Parliament, was also unimpressed by the excuse. She told the Daily Mail, “These are ridiculous, mindless products for anybody to attempt to sell. It is absurd to say they were manufactured in error.”
Amazon UK has since removed the shirts from the website but British lawmakers aren't satisfied. They are reportedly calling on the company to apologize with a "substantial donation" to organizations targeting violence against women.
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