An allegedly offensive t-shirt that was on sale at a local Walmart has gone quite viral after multiple customers pointed out a rude mishap that was present in the design. A user on Twitter shared a picture of the green t-shirt at the supermarket with a very recycling-positive attribute to it. The shirt featured a large RE, with the other side featuring the words ‘cycle’, ‘use’, ‘new’, and ‘think’. As it turns out, despite the uber-positive message put up on the teeshirt, it was observed that it had inadvertently spelled out quite a rude word. Speaking to Newsweek, a spokesperson for Walmart stated, “This was not intentional, and the t-shirt has been removed. For context, this item was only available in Canada.”
This offensive t-shirt was sold in Canada for $5- and is part of the George fashion label that had been owned by the supermarket chain since 1999. The brand has been a huge success even in the United Kingdom, where it is stocked at various ASDA supermarket stores- but is rarely seen in North America. The Twitter user who initially reported it mentioned, “I need this shirt before Walmart realized what they have done. Find the hidden word.” The tweet has already received over 1.3 million views, and close to 14,000 likes. Thousands of Twitter users responded to the original post. One commenter wrote, “I hope this is real. Driving to Walmart now.” Another commenter wrote, “Oh. Oh dear.” There were some people who couldn’t understand what the rude word was, so the original poster asked them to “read down.”
Incidentally, this isn’t the first occurrence of a rude design that has gone viral online. Just like this offensive t-shirt, a $1.5 million home left people laughing their minds off for the phallic-shaped swimming pool in 2022. Similarly, a transparent toilet seat design that featured dried flowers was also slammed. Multiple Redditors saw it as “a transparent toilet seat seems like the worst design decision.”
The original t-shirt tweeter stated, “I saw the shirt at a Walmart by my house. It made me laugh.” Several users on social media realized that Walmart would quickly remove the shirts from their branches, so they rushed to get them before they were removed. Another shopper mentioned, “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.”
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.”
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!”
Yet, another customer mentioned, “Wow, people have too much time on their hands! Now where can I get one?” One had a pretty level-headed opinion about the entire debacle. “Whether it was an intentional design decision or not, I am sure more people saw it as more innocent than the swear word people have extracted from it.”
