Zara pulls denim skirt over likeness to 'alt-right' mascot Pepe the Frog - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Laserbeams;52144797]Sure, but that's called "self-censorship"[/QUOTE] people bitch harder if you make a mistake and double down on it instead of just saying "whoops my bad"

I mean, Richard Spencer did flat out say that pepe has become kind of a symbol of the alt right, but ffs it's a meme lmao

[QUOTE=dai;52145157]people bitch harder if you make a mistake and double down on it instead of just saying "whoops my bad"[/QUOTE] I understand why a huge corporation like Zara wouldn't want to get anywhere near the whole ridiculous Pepe meme debate, but it's still self-censorship, and they didn't even make a mistake in the first place. The resemblance to Pepe is purely coincidental.

[QUOTE=Laserbeams;52145264]The resemblance to Pepe is purely coincidental.[/QUOTE] that's like the entire point of why it's OK they did this, it wasn't their intent to make a pepe but they understand people are making the connection, right or wrong. "self censorship" is a dumb thing to complain about when they as a company [i]should[/i] fear unintentionally taking political stances and fix anything they find to be harmful to their company. They're not censoring themselves because 'oh no we might hurt a few tumblr feelings :(', it's because if the media suddenly starts writing articles saying "hey this company over here is selling clothes with something resembling a surrogate political/hate group/whatever symbol" that reflects bad on their sales, stocks, partnered outlets, future deals, and more. Pulling a limited run of skirts with print on them is far cheaper than getting run out of town it would've been bad business if they decided to stand their ground despite not wanting to make a statement in the first place [editline]e[/editline] even if some marketing doofus [i]was[/i] responsible because a while back they found pepe through a popular content aggregator or whatever and thought 'hey that's cute and the kids seem to like it, this goes in my ideas folder!', or if they flat out knew what pepe was and they're a regular on /pol/ and thought it'd be hilarious to sneak something similar into a clothing line, it's not on the company to stand by pepe in any way shape or form [editline]e[/editline] (below) [QUOTE=Lambeth;52145362]It's like when that boot company accidentally made shoes that imprinted swastikas when you walked anywhere[/QUOTE] god I forgot about that [t]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2017/01/14/reddit-pic-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqBe6O56qrl4zbRlMQqI7UBFVse9JsN00kzbUr3IXHaGo.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=dai;52145340]it's a mistake because they clearly didn't intend to make a pepe, but understand the fact it ended up being comparable. "self censorship" is a dumb thing to complain about when they as a company [i]should[/i] fear unintentionally taking political stances and fix anything they find to be harmful to their company. They're not censoring themselves because 'oh no we might hurt a few tumblr feelings :(', it's because if the media suddenly starts writing articles saying "hey this company over here is selling clothes with something resembling a surrogate political/hate group/whatever symbol" that reflects bad on their sales and stocks. They lose money because there's a connection to shit they didn't intend to connect with and that's bad business to allow just because you want to stand your ground[/QUOTE] It's like when that boot company accidentally made shoes that imprinted swastikas when you walked anywhere

[QUOTE=Lambeth;52145362]It's like when that boot company accidentally made shoes that imprinted swastikas when you walked anywhere[/QUOTE] Difference being ones a Swastika and ones a fucking frog.

And to think all of this came form a dude who drew a furry comic and it made its way to 4chan

It probably is pepe but pepe isn't a racist thing and shouldn't be banned. A business losing profits (thus affecting the workers' livelihoods) and a designer having their worked pulled over something so trivial is nothing more than a shame. her bragging about it later shows she'll sink to any depth for a modicum of internet "fame"

As dumb as this is, the customer is always right. Even when she's far-left.

[QUOTE=Thlis;52146674]Difference being ones a Swastika and ones a fucking frog.[/QUOTE] They're actually pretty comparable to me. The swastika is a positive symbol in many Eastern cultures, while also representing Nazism to many people because of the National Socialist German Worker's party. Pepe is a harmless meme about a cartoon frog that thinks peeing while standing with your pants all the way down feels good man, that's also associated with the alt-right by most of the Western mainstream. In both cases, regardless of the positive meaning of the symbol, companies would naturally avoid using it to separate their brand from the negative association.

[QUOTE=TacticalBacon;52153026]They're actually pretty comparable to me. The swastika is a positive symbol in many Eastern cultures, while also representing Nazism to many people because of the National Socialist German Worker's party. Pepe is a harmless meme about a cartoon frog that thinks peeing while standing with your pants all the way down feels good man, that's also associated with the alt-right by most of the Western mainstream. In both cases, regardless of the positive meaning of the symbol, companies would naturally avoid using it to separate their brand from the negative association.[/QUOTE] I think there's definitely a marked difference in the magnitude of how offensive these symbols are. As a company I wouldn't want to associate with either but we haven't quite reached the point where millions are being wholesale slaughtered under a pepe flag.

[QUOTE=Duck M.;52153135]I think there's definitely a marked difference in the magnitude of how offensive these symbols are. As a company I wouldn't want to associate with either but we haven't quite reached the point where millions are being wholesale slaughtered under a pepe flag.[/QUOTE] Oh yeah there's definitely a colossal difference in scale between the two (for both the positive and negative associations). The swastika is an extreme example of this sort of dual meaning after all, being both a huge part of multiple religions AND the symbol of one of the worst atrocities in human history.

old man jenkins never wanted to be a burden...

It's bad press, really. Pepe, regardless of his origins, is associated with a racist anti-semitic movement (alt-right), so you can see why a brand would pull a product. They probably went "yeah, this thing is gonna be a meme and it's bad publicity" regardless of the manufactured outrage

On another note [thumb]http://i.imgur.com/26dD6M7.png[/thumb] At first glance I thought this was blackface.

[QUOTE=VGDCMario;52159827]On another note [thumb]http://i.imgur.com/26dD6M7.png[/thumb] At first glance I thought this was blackface.[/QUOTE] that's just Operator Pepe [t]https://img.fireden.net/vg/image/1430/24/1430244087388.png[/t]

[QUOTE=proboardslol;52154576]It's bad press, really. Pepe, regardless of his origins, is associated with a racist anti-semitic movement (alt-right), so you can see why a brand would pull a product. They probably went "yeah, this thing is gonna be a meme and it's bad publicity" regardless of the manufactured outrage[/QUOTE] But it ain't even pepe. And as far as I can tell, there wasn't even a big outrage over it (before the news). Just this girl at first.