Clothing Company Sparks Controversy

 

San Diego-based clothing company has landed in hot water over a photo showing its T-shirts featuring the body of a monkey paired off with a customized hanger depicting the face of an African-American boy.

The offensive image was shared on Twitter Wednesday, sparking indignation among users who lambasted the manufacturer, Just Add A Kid, for allowing this to happen. 

The clothing brand, which is owned by the company Thanks A Million, quickly went into damage control mode, responding on Twitter that the incident was the result of a misunderstanding. 

 The widely distributed and inappropriate picture of a mismatched "Just Add A Kid" hanger with one of our t-shirt products was not authorized, condoned or tolerated by our company,' spokesperson David Oates wrote in a statement released on Twitter. 

'We sincerely regretted this occurrence and immediately directed our retail partner to change the product placement.'

The statement went on to say that the company will offer mandatory training to everyone in all their distribution channels to make sure that such an indent never repeats itself. 

The image that set off the controversy depicted a row of Just Add A Kid tees with the body of a monkey holding a banana, draped over cardboard hangers with the face of an African-American child.  

 The monkey shirts were placed next to a row of tees with a soldier character on the front, which had been matched with hangers featuring a Caucasian boy.

The company explained that the T-shirts and hooks came separately, and it was up to each individual store carrying the Just Add A Kid brand to match the two. 

'The head shots on our hangers are intended to reflect the different cultures of our happy customers,' the spokesman for the company wrote. 

Just Add A Kid's statement went on to explain that one of their retailers paired a particular hanger with a shirt without consideration for how it may appear.

Just Add A Kid offers a wide range of products ranging from baby bibs to onesies, toddler tees and shirts for adults ranging in price from $9.95 to $17.95. 

The clothing items come with many different designs, including farmers, princesses, zoo animals, pirates and basketball players. 

‘Our designs feature multicultural skin tones and appropriately matching header cards (to) showcase children of the world,’ the company tweeted. 

The message was accompanied by a collage showcasing various shirt models matched with hangers depicting African-American, Hispanic and Asian toddlers. 

Among the cartoon characters that grace the shirts available for purchase on the Just Add A Kid website is one called 'Confederate,' which depicts a Civil War-era rebel in a grey uniform with a drawn sword and a small Confederate flag.