The Reasonably Prudent Law Student

The first time I heard the words, “Molotov cocktails,” I assumed it was an actual cocktail. You know, like a White Russian. What? I was like 10 at the time. I totally thought that the Molotov cocktail was a mix of vodka and creme de menthe and maybe an olive or sprig of mint or something. I had no idea it was actually basically a firebomb: a glass bottle filled with gasoline, stuffed with a rag, which is then set on fire and lobbed at the target, causing a horrible explosion and terrible burns.

But if it was an actual cocktail, you could definitely raise it in a toast to Kenneth Cole’s marketing department. They decided it would be totally funny and not at all tasteless and horrifying to get some marketing in on the backs of Egyptian protesters, most of them under 30, being shot in the head by snipers as they fight for freedom from a dictator that has been torturing and terrorizing his countrymen for 30 years.

Click HERE to get to the actual tweet until someone in Marketing or PR inevitably realizes that it was a horrible idea and takes it down. Click on the snapshot to make it bigger in case you can’t read it. Also, notice that the background picture is for an AIDs charity. Stay classy, Kenneth Cole.

This is absolutely ridiculous.

Let me clarify my thoughts on this issue.

It’s fine to say something like this. It is. It doesn’t absolve you of being a dick, but that’s the thing about humor – when we try to censor it, or declare that something can’t be made fun of because it’s just too horrible or awkward, we run into trouble. It reminds me of the South Park episode about how AIDs is finally funny because 23 years have passed.

The problem is basically this. There is a BIG difference between a person saying something like that and a corporation saying something like that. For one thing, it’s easier to smack a person or call him/her a douche. :) But you guys know what I mean: there is a big difference between a remark made by one person, and one made by a corporation. You can argue that the Twitter account is probably run by one person or one group of people, but that’s not a convincing argument in light of the fact that the KC Twitter account is meant to represent the company. There’s no persuasive way to get around that.

Another thing is scope. One person being a dick and saying something like that only reaches the people immediately around him, or the few hundreds that follow him on Twitter, or whatever. One person is saying this in whatever company he is in – probably his friends, who he thinks will find it funny.

It’s a much different matter when a corporation with tens of thousands of followers says that on such a public forum.

Another thing? The purpose. Chances are, the person just saying it to be funny is only trying to be funny. A corporation using it as a throwaway marketing line? Disgusting. Trashy. Offensive. Keep in mind people are dying here. People are shot and wounded and beaten up. People are badly burned from those Molotov cocktails, and not the kind with vodka, either.

This would probably have been funny when it was just a bunch of peaceful protesters, about 8 million, standing in Tahrir Square handing roses to army officers. You know, like it was last week.

But people are being shot in the head. Journalists are being beaten up and dragged away so they can’t report on the crisis. Children are being killed. The army is running people over with tanks. It is horrifying. It is a human rights crisis, and that makes things like that tweet even more offensive.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t know anyone in Egypt or have any connection to the country. I’d like to think most of us are empathetic enough for that personal connection – or lack thereof, really – not to matter at a time like this.

And I suppose the company may say that the tweet wasn’t run by their PR department, which isn’t an excuse. It’s a Twitter account. It’s a PART of public relations, and there is no excuse for the PR department not to be closely monitoring it and signing off on whatever is said through that account. Frankly, I wouldn’t even believe the company if it said that the PR department hadn’t approved that and it was all a big mistake. It’s just a way to shift blame and absolve itself.

Maybe I’m too sensitive about that particular tweet because I have a friend, an American citizen, at that, not even some random foreigner whose life has less meaning than that of an American, or so we’re always told, that relocated to Cairo about a month ago. She’s been in Tahrir Square for days with her trusty camera. And for the last couple of days, she’s been risking her life to do so, and I’m just sick at the thought that there’s nothing I can do to help her or the other protesters, most of them under 30, and most of them students just like me and most of the people reading this blog, other than tweet about it and call my local embassy.

Screw you, Kenneth Cole. I have linked to your items often enough on this site, but won’t be doing that anymore until I’m much less pissed off about this. Not that it matters to KC. But it matters to me.

Look at these pictures taken in a makeshift hospital in Cairo. Tell me this is something to laugh about, or something to use to pimp a goddamn fashion line.

And while you’re at it, check out these pictures from the Boston Globe.

Boston Globe

Boston Globe

I saw this miscaptioned all over Twitter. It is a protester-doctor in Tahrir examining an army officer affected by the tear gas used by pro-Mubarak paid thugs.

For God's sake, that's just a kid. >_<