A storefront in NYC. Photo by iStockphoto.
Shamrocks may say Ireland to you, but does a drunk vomiting shamrocks? It apparently does to Urban Outfitters, a US company that started in Philadelphia in 1970 selling funky fashion and other products to the 18-30 crowd. It’s selling wearable merchandise with the image to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day.
The Philadelphia-based Irish Anti-Defamation Federation has set its sights on the company, which has several stores in Ireland. This week, Federation Chairman Timothy Wilson, in an email to members, said that he had “written to the CEO, sent him an email and sent an email to their customer service department,” demanding a public apology along with removal of the merchandise bearing the image.
This isn’t the first time Urban Outfitters crossed an ethnic line. In 2011, the Navajo Nation demanded that the company stop using the term “Navajo” for a line of products that included a liquor flask. The company removed the name. They also voluntarily withdrew products including a t-shirt that read “Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl” surrounded by dollar signs, a Monopoly-style game called Ghettopoly, and a “Jesus Dress Up” game, after protests from various groups over the years. In 2006, they agreed not to sell sparkly handgun-shaped Christmas ornaments after the murder in Philadelphia of Police Officer Charles “Chuck” Cassidy.
Headquartered in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the company has 140 stores in the US and abroad, and also operates Anthropologie, Free People, and Terrain.
Federation officers, including Wilson, will be on the “Come West Along the Road” Irish radio show with Marianne MacDonald on Sunday, February 26, at noon at WTMR 800AM where they’ll be talking about Urban Outfitters and other retailers whose merchandise they’re targeting in the region. Last year, the new organization went head-to-head with Spencer Gifts, picketing its stores which sell gag and risqué gifts the federation deemed offensive. (A check of their website finds that most of those products are back. “Drink all day and fight all night” is one of the few Irish-themed slogans that can be printed here. )
