Parody Wal-Mart T-Shirt Designer Sued


Charles Smith of Bentonville, Arkansas is under fire from the Wa-Mart’s switchblade gang of crack attorneys from marketing t-shirts with the message “I {heart} WAL*OCAUST. They have family values and their alcohol, tobacco and firearms are 20% off.”

A bit wordy for a t-shirt, but we get what he’s saying. And just to make sure that we all get it Smith skull fucks his point into the ground by illuminating that he “thinks that Wal-Mart’s destructive effect on people and neighborhoods was like the destruction wrought by the Holocaust.”

Picking on Wal-Mart is pretty much our thing here at the Consumerist. Furthermore, we’re pretty sure that Joel doesn’t even believe that the Holocaust really happened. But let’s pretend for a second that it did. Call us naive, but minimum wage, low-low-prices and ugly aluminum boxes in suburbia is not quite the same thing as gassing millions of Jews, gypsies and homosexuals. Do you remember when people used words that actually illustrated their point, as opposed to demeaning it? Neither do we — it must have been before the advent of the Internet.

Nevertheless, this bozo certainly has a right to his opinions, which makes us aggrieved at Wal-Mart for suing him over the t-shirt (which has netted Smith a whole $5 dollars in profit thus far!). Wal-Mart actually seems rather sheepish about the lawsuit, claiming that they have a duty under law to protect their trademark, lest it set a future precedent. This is probably true, but the better idea here would be not to validate an idiot who cheapens both the complaints against Wal-Mart and the memory of those who died in the greatest atrocity of the 20th century by undeserved publicity. We hope (and know) Smith will win his case, but we wish he’d just can it anyway.

Link: Wal-Mart Parodist Sues to Sell Products

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