Keller @ Large: Exploiting Tragedy For Profit

BOSTON (CBS) - It's become a familiar, recurring element of the pop-culture news cycle – a merchant peddling an item so exploitative and tasteless that "bad taste" isn't sufficient to describe it.

The latest perpetrator is the Urban Outfitters clothing company, which specializes in "edgy" novelty items, like shirts for kids that promote drinking with phrases like "I vote for vodka," or the nifty t-shirts with Holocaust-era symbols on them.

Real cute.

Anyway, this company thought it was clever to unveil a blood-spattered, $129 sweatshirt with what look like bullet holes and the logo of Kent State University on it, a revolting sight to anyone old enough to remember the horrendous 1970 shootings of four unarmed Kent State students during antiwar protests.

Amid the uproar that followed, Kent State issued a statement saying in part: "We take great offense to a company using our pain for their publicity and profit."

Adding dishonesty to insult, the company's apology denies that it meant to exploit the violent episode: "The red stains are discoloration from the original shade of the shirt and the holes are from natural wear and fray."

The whole thing reminds me of a depressing story I did years ago about Charles Manson t-shirts being sold to clueless teens.

I asked the guy peddling them if he knew Manson was a vicious racist as well as murderer, and he didn't seem to care.

That's what you're saying when you exploit tragedy for profit – we just don't care.

Maybe not such a smart marketing move, after all.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

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