There’s two ways to call this shot, either Sears and KMart didn’t know they were selling Ashli Babbitt American Patriot tee shirts, which raises an interesting question about what else they might be selling in ignorance, Lego sets to build Nazi gas chambers, for example, or they thought, let’s go ahead and sell it, and then the minute the blow back came, they reconsidered their choice.

Here’s what it looks like.

Here’s Sears walking it back.

Two ways to call this shot, too. They were happy to make a dollar, oblivious to the fact that they were endorsing the Big Lie, or they didn’t even consider what they were doing. The only thought was to make a buck, any old way. Again, that makes you wonder what else is going on with these two giant corporations. Either way, the optics are not good.

Plus, what is totally stupid is that the Babbitt family has filed a $10 Million lawsuit against the Capitol police and wingnut politician Paul Gosar is leading the charge — and these stores want to get in the middle of a political lava bath like this? Was the buyer who put these on the shelves working remotely from the moon? If I was management, this would be my first question, “anybody here ever read or watch the news?”

It’s interesting how tone deaf corporations can be and how important it is for consumers to speak up. Last fall I got an ad on K-Earth 101 radio in Los Angeles modified. The ad was for a grocery delivery service and it started out, “if you’ve gone to the store without a mask, and we all have, and you’re turned away and angry about it, try such and such store that understands your needs…” Words to this effect.

I called the station manager and told him how irresponsible the ad copy was. I said, “This negates responsibility for using a mask in the time of a pandemic. Nobody should be so stupid as to leave the house without a mask and nobody should be angry when they’re not allowed into a public place that requires masks. This is a very bad image to put on the air.”

The guy hemmed and hawed and said that the station “didn’t mean to offend anybody” and I said, “it’s not about offending or not offending. It’s about carrying a responsible message on your airwaves.”

They redid the spot. It was a local, in-station spot, not surprisingly. An ad agency wouldn’t have put that kind of drivel on the air, they’re usually sharper than that.

I mention this to make the point that responsible people are the guardians of democracy, every bit as much as elected officials. Grassroots movements are important. What happened here on Twitter with the Ashli Babbitt tee shirt was important.

Vigilance is the price of liberty.

Help keep the site running, consider supporting.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Wasn’t it a Babbitt that did that bad thing to her husband? I was confused when I heard her name in passing because her 15 minutes of fame was years ago. As to the current Babbitt, her stupid as dirt family should be suing Trump and the RNC. I thought Kmart and Sears were defunct.

  2. That was a Bobbitt.
    K-mart is pretty much dead, but Sears is still around. They shouldn’t have let the venture-capitalists make decisions, though, because those guys are always wrong.

    • I agree, but in this case, a one or the other might be a very poor decision by an in-house kid to prank the companies, but this is something like putting real bullets in a gun used in a stage production, not realizing the stupid reality of human death …

      Or a spaced out, brain dead, spittle dripping, CT promoter that wished He or She could have been there as well …

  3. A lot of the t-shirts you see advertised for sale on these platforms don’t exist unless/until you click the “Buy” button. They’re print-on-demand items, just like vanity coffee mugs. Thus there’s typically no inventory to destroy, and taking down the link is sufficient to stop the sale of this crap.

    In some cases (despite how it’s presented) you’re pre-ordering the item. They won’t even complete the sale unless they accrue some threshold quantity (25, 50, 100) where it’s profitable to make the shirt at the sale price. If they fail to reach that threshold, you get a refund.

    Dunno about sears.com, but places like Amazon simply host the sales of these things. Amazon neither makes nor ships on-demand t-shirts like this, they merely facilitate the sale then skim a percentage off the top. In those cases, finding & banning offensive vendors is like an extended game of whack-a-mole: Amazon dutifully bans the vendor, but then they’re back in business moments later with a new account.

  4. If I stormed the capital chanting hate & violence, overran the barricades, injured & attacked officers, broke into the Senate chamber & other areas, was taped trying to get into the house chamber by smashing windows, ignored warnings all through the process that the police were going to do their best to defend the unarmed congress, THEN after all of that, tried to be the first person to climb through the opening, & seeing guns drawn, still proceeded…well, I would expect to be shot. As a veteran, if I volunteered to go into a field of battle, I would expect some of us aren’t coming home.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

The maximum upload file size: 128 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here