In case it wasn't obvious by my rant about how it's unfair that a boy who got the most votes for prom queen was denied the crown, I'm a big supporter of gay rights. When I first saw the Urban Outfitters ad featuring two women kissing in their latest catalog, I wasn't fazed. I was actually kind of impressed by their forward-thinking, despite all of the outrage they then faced from conservative Christian group One Million Moms, which had previously attacked JCPenney's ads with Ellen DeGeneres. But when I looked into the company's history, I realized one very sad, cold truth: t__his lesbian ad is nothing but a desperate cry for attention from a company who has pulled this kind of stunt in the past.__
Read more ¿Qué más? Why can't this boy run for prom queen?
The list of their offenses if kind of endless: they released a Monopoly parody called "Ghettopoly", which was criticized as racist by the NAACP, they produced a shirt that said "Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl" surrounded by dollar signs, which was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League, and another shirt saying "Eat Less" was considered to be pro-anorexia so it was eventually pulled from the website as well.
More recently, though, they were criticized for a transphobic greeting card and received a lot of flack because chairman and co-founded Richard Hayne and his wife donated $13,000 to Rick Santorum—who is well known for his disapproval of gay equality. That controversy even incited an angry tweet from Miley Cyrus, when she said that "every time you give them money, you help finance a campaign against gay equality". Clearly the company doesn't give a flying hoot about gay rights, so why put up an ad of two women kissing? I very much doubt that Richard Hayne would support these women's right to marry, so what can I assume except that they're putting up this ad knowing that it will get them attention?
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Although I've shopped at the store plenty, I'm currently finding them a little pathetic. Why are they so desperate to get hate groups going after them and stirring up all of this publicity? If they wanted to show some real support for gay rights, there would have been better ways to do it (like donating money to the Human Rights Campaign instead). But, considering their track record of attention-getting merchandise, this one's just the latest. And I'm really sick of it.
What do you think of Urban Outfitter's new ad featuring two women kissing?
Image via Urban Outfitters
