So hip, so cool, so completely lost

Agent P Berry has been silent for awhile, quite understandably, but she threw us a tasty little story that we just wanted to pounce on. So many thanks go out for passing it our way. This is doubly timely, as we're about to go and get some holes cut into us, and we're not even sure if we'll be able to put out our awards tomorrow. We'll try, but no promises.

As it turns out, Macy's has decided that they want to be like Target, Hot Topic, Insert-Name-of-Most-Other-Stores-Here, and they want to carry lines of trendy t-shirts. Even more to the point, they want to carry trendy t-shirts that appeal to the Hispanic community. So they lined up a company called NaCo, and ordered a bunch of shirts from them, figuring that, well, if NaCo can appeal to hip Hispanics, then NaCo in Macy's would appeal to hip Hispanics with disposable income.

The only problem is that they didn't realize one of the shirts might be seen as a little bit offensive. The saying on that shirt? "Brown is the new white". Surprise surprise, now Macy's is pulling the shirt, and there's other rumblings about a shirt that reads "B is for Beaner".

Wow. Way to go, Macy's. By attempting to cater to a specific demographic, you may have actually pushed them away? How about you manufacture t-shirts with lawnmowers on them, just to play up stereotypes?

At least the company decided to pull the shirts. We do consider that a step in the right direction. Maybe, with a little research, they won't run afoul with other potential forays to bring new markets to their door. Y'know, like trying for the Asian demographic with a t-shirt that reads "Chin Music". Or appealing to blacks with a "Song of the South" tribute collection.

And then they can culminate with a line of umbrellas for emo kids. We're thinking of ones specially made to help keep their mascara from running.