On the 4th of May in 1970, four protesting students were shot and killed by guardsmen at Kent State University in Ohio, along with nine others who were wounded. Over forty years later, Urban Outfitters clothing store is facing controversy related to this tragedy. In 2014, the store released a line of “sun-faded” sweatshirts, one of them having a Kent State logo on it. What sparked the controversy surrounding this specific sweatshirt was the design chosen, which includes spots of red that many people have claimed look like blood stains.
Many people were extremely offended by this sweatshirt, especially Kent State alumni, students, and staff members. A lot of people believe that the red marks on the sweatshirt serve as a reference to the shootings in 1970. After the controversy gained attention, Urban Outfitters offered an apology and claimed that the red marks were not intended to look like blood, but many people don’t think that this was an accident.
Urban Outfitters has been known to create slightly controversial clothing lines, and for this reason, speculators have concluded that the Kent State Sweatshirt may have been created as a form of shock marketing. Some say that all publicity is good publicity, which definitely applies to this situation. Urban Outfitters may have designed this sweatshirt to intentionally spark controversy. Although many people were angered and offended by the article of clothing, their attention was drawn to Urban Outfitters. This probably lead more people to visit their website, where they may have even ended up purchasing something.
Shock marketing is a strange way to attract attention to a brand, but sometimes, it works. Whether or not a person was offended by the Kent State sweatshirt doesn’t really matter, what matters is that it got people thinking about Urban Outfitters.
- Paul Gielow
Sources:
- Brock, Sam, and Kinsey Kiriakos. "Urban Outfitters' Controversy a "Mistake" or Marketing
Ploy?" NBC Bay Area. N.p., 16 Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
- Chan, Aleksander. "Urban Outfitters Sells "Vintage" Blood-Spattered Kent State
Sweatshirt." Gawker. N.p., 15 Sept. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
- Lewis, Jerry M., and Thomas R. Hensley. "THE MAY 4 SHOOTINGS AT KENT STATE
UNIVERSITY: THE SEARCH FOR HISTORICAL ACCURACY." N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
http://dept.kent.edu/sociology/lewis/lewihen.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment