Urban Outfitters Stirs Controversy With Drug-Themed Products
Urban Outfitters has caused quite a bit of controversy thanks to a series of medical-themed shot gag products.
The company found itself the center of negative attention once again thanks to a line of shot glasses, flasks, and koozies that are designed to look like pill bottles and syringes.
“Prescribe yourself a small dose of pleasure. Syringe-shaped shot container – press down top to squirt out liquid. Fill it up with booze and let the healing begin!” one product description reads.
The retailer has drawn the ire of the Partnership at Drugfree.org. Although Urban Outfitters has released the items as gag products, the organization feels that the company is simply “making light of the real prescription drug abuse epidemic that’s claiming lives of teens across the country.”
“Tongue-in-cheek products that normalize and promote prescription drug abuse only serve to reinforce the misperception about the dangers associated with abusing medicine and put more teens at risk,” explained Government Affairs of The Partnership at Drugfree.org senior vice president Marcia Lee Taylor.
The Urban Outfitters controversy has also caught the attention of documentary film producer Natalie Costa. Her film Behind the Orange Curtain deals with kids in California who are addicted to prescription drugs.
“It’s not fun, it’s not a novelty, and parents are losing their kids. We have a huge addiction problem. They need to find something else to sell,” Costa explained.
Urban Outfitters is certainly no stranger to controversy. The company has been criticized for selling a number of questionable items. The retailer has angered a number of individuals for selling Navajo panties, alcohol-themed shirts, and shirts bearing Holocaust imagery.
The company has yet to respond to the recent criticism regarding its line of drug-themed shot glasses and flasks. Given that the retailer seems to thrive on this sort of attention, chances are this is precisely what they were hoping to achieve.
What do you think about the latest Urban Outfitters controversy?
[Image via Wikimedia Commons]
