Urban Outfitters just pulled a shampoo referencing a notorious spot for suicide
The company has pulled Anatomicals' "Peachy Head" shampoo - which was sold at Urban Outfitters stores in the UK - following complaints about the product's reference to suicide, Mashable reports.
"Peachy Head" was a pun on "Beachy Head," which is a casual hairstyle, as well as the name of a cliffside in the UK that's notorious for the number of suicides committed there.
The shampoo's reference was hardly subtle. The bottle's label said: "peach shampoo for suicidal hair" and "I never knew my once beautiful hair would actually commit suicide by tossing itself off dramatic white cliffs to the rocks below."
People had been tweeting about the unsettling product for a while.
Not funny @UrbanOutfitters ?? pic.twitter.com/xgyN46eBAo
"The product has been on sale for a number of years without any complaints," Anatomicals co-founder Paul Marshall told BuzzFeed.
The product has now been removed from stores.
Dear @UrbanOutfitters think this is an acceptable product aimed at teenage girls? Shameful AND hugely irresponsible. pic.twitter.com/3gdwadGj5Q
- Sam Missingham (@samatlounge) April 28, 2016
What next @urbanoutfitters? Cancer conditioner? Alzheimer's aftershave? Suicide is not hip. Or a fashion choice. https://t.co/T1pvwcaoVp
- Matt Haig (@matthaig1) April 28, 2016
Urban Outfitters slammed for selling "shampoo for suicidal hair" #blm pic.twitter.com/StUE4D2FQZ
- Traynesha Cole (@TrayneshaCole) April 29, 2016
@Leilah_Makes unbelievable, isn't it? The thinking behind it is hard to imagine, isn't it?
- Sam Missingham (@samatlounge) April 28, 2016
Here's Urban Outfitter's response on Twitter:
@samatlounge We appreciate your concern and are pulling this product from all retail stores immediately.
- Urban Outfitters (@UrbanOutfitters) April 28, 2016
"We're probably not going to continue selling the product," said Marshall to Buzzfeed. "That's not to say that we've [bowed] down to a couple of people who have made comments that we don't agree with. So we're not bowing down to a nanny state, that's for sure."
"But we don't wish to offend anyone, and that's why we have removed it from sale," he said to BuzzFeed, adding that his company does not make "light of suicide and, in particular, teen suicide."
Urban Outfitters released a statement to Business Insider that reads as follows:
Urban Outfitters is no stranger to controversy.
Last year, Urban Outfitters came under fire after releasing a shirt that bore a striking similarity to apparel from the Holocaust. And before that, Urban Outfitters released a Kent State sweatshirt with blood splatterings, evoking the horrific Kent State shooting in 1970. That's just the short list of gaffes that have sparked fury in customers.
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