“A local mom called us upset about what she saw in an ad delivered to her door,” Florida’s wpvt.com reports. “Rita Richardson described her reaction to the JC Penny circular, ‘I did a double take when I saw the ad for this shirt right on the front page.’ The shirt that has Richardson fired up says, ‘suns out guns out,’ a reference to muscles for a sleeveless tee-shirt. But Rita feels the shirt sends a different message. ‘I just thought it was sad that a major retailers like JC Penny would want its brand associated with something that advocates, glorifies gun violence.'” And the correct response would have been to . . .
tell Mr. Richardson that “guns” refers to biceps muscles, thank her for thinking of wpvt and hang-up the phone. Needless to say that’s not how it went down . . .
We reached out to JC Penny for comment, but have not heard back. And we were able to find the shirt being sold at a local JC Penny store.
Richardson says she is a loyal JC Penny shopper adding, “That’s why I read their ad and look for sales, but they could just give this some more attention.”
And Richardson knows what she would like to see happen. “Well I would hope they would take it off the shelves, immediately.” But also says she understands young people use their clothing to express themselves, their values, but hopes if the store keeps the shirt, people will choose to wear something else.
As TTAG tipster JG wrote when he sent the link to this non-story, the stupid…it burns! And like most fires, it spreads. ijreview.com has the story, too. The comments underneath are awesome. New Yorker Raymond Di Gregorio writes, “I’m offended by the term tank top. I think it promotes military occupation. Can we please change the name to fuzzy bunny tops?” Done! And done.