An allegedly insulting t-shirt sold at a local Walmart went viral when several customers pointed out an unpleasant error in the design. A Twitter user uploaded a photo of a green t-shirt at the store that had a very recycling-positive attribute. The shirt featured a huge RE on one side and the phrases ‘cycle’, ‘use’, ‘new’, and ‘think’ on the other. As it turned out, despite the teeshirt’s overwhelmingly uplifting message, it had mistakenly typed out a quite harsh term. A Walmart spokeswoman told Newsweek, “This was not intentional, and the t-shirt has been removed.” For reference, this product was only available in Canada.”
Offensive t-shirt and product designs that could have used a little more thought
This is not the first time a harsh design has gone viral online. Just like this provocative t-shirt, a $1.5 million home in 2022 had folks laughing their heads off because of its phallic-shaped swimming pool. A translucent toilet seat design with dried flowers was also criticized. According to several Redditors, “a transparent toilet seat seems like the worst design decision.”
The original t-shirt tweeter said, “I saw the shirt at a Walmart near my house.” “It made me laugh.” Several social media users realized that Walmart will swiftly remove the shirts from its locations, so they hurried to grab them before they were gone. Another customer said, “Knowing Walmart, it’s only a matter of time before they disappear, and it’s just a funny little story.”
Needless to say, this offensive t-shirt did cause a lot of laughter on social media. One Twitter user commented, “Laughed out loud when I spotted that. I want this because I’m a tree hugger. The hidden word is simply a bonus.” Another user on social media commented, “I always wonder exactly how many layers of approval these things go through.”
Some people are of the opinion that the T-shirt shouldn’t have been removed from the branches. One individual commented, “People have too much time on their hands and questionable minds. The shirt shouldn’t have been pulled. It wasn’t designed to read downward based on just those letters. It says more about the people that think with that language than it does the designer.”
Source: Newsweek
Walmart Has Had A History Of Selling Questionable Items
This, incidentally, isn’t the first time Walmart has raised eyebrows for its questionable items. Previously, Walmart had been selling offensive shirts with captions relating to s*x and dr**s. When Walmart was notified of it, they responded, “This obviously has no business being on our site. It wasn’t sold by Walmart directly, but by third-party sellers on our marketplace. It’s in clear violation of our policy. We apologize to anyone who was offended by the item and we’re removing it immediately.”
Source: Reuters
Regarding the offensive t-shirts, the reactions have been mostly laughter and light banter. One user commented, “Personally, I love the message because it doesn’t beat around the bush.” While another user commented, “They should have removed them from the shelves, and retagged them with higher prices, and put them right back!!” A third consumer went on to state, “I’m 10 x’s more likely to buy one now that someone pointed that out!”
