I can easily lose a good hour or more scrolling through the Etsy app on my phone. Recently I’ve been perusing Rosenthal ceramics, particularly pieces by Bjørn Wiinblad. And my mother is getting ready to redo parts of her kitchen, so I’m having fun looking up cabinet knobs and drawer pulls I know she’d like. Miraculously, I buy very little despite favoriting a gazillion items. Still, Etsy has worked out the niche Kismet algorithm: vintage + quirky/whimsical + easily breakable. So I was seriously disappointed to hear this story of extremely poor taste from Etsy. Long Island, NY resident Amy Stabile shared with local news that an Etsy ad popped up while she was on Facebook. The ad was for a Garfield t-shirt, wherein the comic cat is in the shape of an airplane headed towards two towers of lasagna. The caption read, “9/11? Yeah! I’ll take 911 … orders of lasagna!” That’s revolting enough as far as I’m concerned, but making it worse is the fact that Stabile lost her father in the tragedy.
Amy Stabile told Fox 5 New York that she had been scrolling through Facebook when she saw an Etsy ad for T-shirts with a 9/11-themed design of Garfield and New York City’s World Trade Center Twin Towers.
The shirts depicted Garfield in the shape of an airplane flying into the character’s favorite food — lasagna — in the shape of the towers. The shirt read, “9/11? Yeah! I’ll take 911 … orders of lasagna!”
Nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, after terrorists hijacked planes and flew them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.
Stabile’s dad, Herman Broghammer, died in the attacks that day.
“I just couldn’t believe my eyes,” Stabile recalled to Fox 5 New York after seeing the shirts online. “Thousands of lives were murdered [in the 9/11 incident].”
“When I saw Garfield — I didn’t even understand how it goes together,” she continued. “There are so many things you could put on a T-shirt. Why this? You feel so crushed that someone, anyone, could think that the loss of these lives is funny.”
The seller of the T-shirts, NelliesNestStore, is based in Australia, though they ship out of North Carolina, Fox 5 New York reported.
The store’s profile reads, “Silly Merch for Silly Dudes” and boasts a five-star rating. The seller has since taken the T-shirts down from the website as of Saturday, March 22.
According to Etsy’s current policies, items that “promote, support or glorify hatred” or “violence” are prohibited from the site. A spokesperson for the company told Fox 5 New York that humor is subjective and that the platform did not plan to remove the items.
A spokesperson also told the outlet that it would take a closer look to make sure that the T-shirts depicting Garfield and 9/11 didn’t end up in ads.
Stabile, meanwhile, is calling for stricter policies on the market selling platform. She told Fox 5 New York: “Maybe it’s time to start creating policies where this goes against your company policies. You’re making money [off] terrorism. Where are these companies? Stand up for the families of 9/11 and do something about this.”
“At some point you want to say, ‘Have some humanity and think about how you’re making your money,’” she added.
I’m sorry, how on earth can Etsy claim that this t-shirt doesn’t glorify hatred and violence? We all know the act of terrorism the graphic is referencing. And then in order to pull the “humor is subjective” defense, the item in question has to actually be funny, which this tee most definitely is not. I understand free speech must be protected, but is this sad sack clothing company really the hill Etsy wants to die on? To be clear: in no way do I hold Garfield responsible! Clearly his good name and image have been usurped by bad faith actors, who methinks have probably heard from lawyers by now over an unlicensed usage of the famous feline. (Which is probably the real motivating factor behind them taking the shirt down off their Etsy page, let’s be real.) As of this writing, the store has only two t-shirts for sale, one of which says “I hate my wife.” So funny I forgot to laugh. And among the reviews for the store was one customer who wrote earlier this month, “I got fired from my job for wearing this.”
So a quick reminder to anyone uncertain: the only appropriate time to invoke 9/11 in a joke is NEVER. I don’t think Etsy fully gets it, though, based on their comment they’d make sure “T-shirts depicting Garfield and 9/11 didn’t end up in ads.” The ad part isn’t the issue!
Photos are screenshots from YouTube/Fox 5 NY
I saw a really good theatre play in London last year titled Batman (written by a playwright who lost her mother to homicide) which is all about how true crime decreases empathy and encourages people to see horrific tragedies as entertainment.
In one point the show had projections of an Etsy shop with real life Etsy products that were themed around murder, and they were horrifying. Like, Fred and Rose West t-shirts with pictures of them with the caption “WESTLIFE” (Westlife were a popular boyband). T-shirts saying “Choke Me Like Bundy, Eat Me Like Dahmer.”
Sick!
Etsy is terrible. They are terrible to their sellers, and I just had a seller scam me where they kept claiming the item shipped but they wouldn’t provide the tracking number and it never arrived (luckily I could charge it back on my cc).
There’s a new platform called Maker Marketplace that’s trying to be the anti-Etsy but not sure how much traction it’s getting.
There is also a lot of theft of artists’ work on there. I’ll never understand how they have never been sued into oblivion.
I’ve noticed in the last couple of months, the ads that are popping up are more crass, vulgar, violence implying and just plain offensive, and they often feature products with weapons or sexual imagery. From cartoon cats pissing or taking a dump to “i hate my wife” to weird accessories for impotence/sex aids to ammosexual my whatever will destroy all whatevers to giant boobs. I’m reading the news at work on my lunch break, I use an ad blocker, why, Boston Globe ad server, are THOSE the few images and phrases, products you serve up?
Probably for the same reason someone made a cartoon tv shirt “joking” about a terrorist attack that killed thousands and enabled an unjust war that killed and maimed thousands more. The heightened emotional response it triggers drives eyeballs and engagement. And it’s the mood of the country ATM – the more horrific, lewd and bigoted, the better.
Ugh!
I am with you Kismet, nothing about 9/11 will ever be funny.
There seems to be this growing trend in certain circles that things that are shocking, vulgar, offensive, crude – are a form of intelligent, witty humor. They aren’t. It’s appalling, and equally appalling is the condescending response that people that can’t see the alleged humor aren’t intelligent enough, or are simply too sensitive and easily offended. “Sorry this offends you, but you just aren’t smart enough and are too sensitive to understand my brilliant sense of humor.” No, this isn’t witty or clever, it’s just awful and cruel.
This is gross. There was a complete lack of empathy for those who died and their families. What mental gymnastics did the creators/owners go through to justify selling this design? I know it’s super cool to be edgy and disaffected but basic humanity should have kicked in and said this was a no go.
that’s not cute or funny. it’s stupid, actually.
but just like the “your body my choice” merch that surged last year, these sites don’t review individual sellers’ storefronts for content. Neither Etsy, ebay, zappos, amazon, etc do. for these type of pieces-offensive without triggering the cancelbots that are programed for explicitly offensive racist or sexual content-the sites rely on users to alert them. they’re given a chance to comply before being shut down if they don’t.