Solid Gold Bomb, an Australian t-shirt company issued an apology for advertising tops with slogans such as “Keep Calm and Rape A Lot” and “Keep Calm and Kill Her”.
The lines were created through an automated computer process with relied on online dictionaries to create versions of the slogans based on British World War II motto “Keep Calm and Carry On”.
Michael Fowler, Solid Gold Bomb founder said:
“I apologize for the offensive response this has created across the world”.
“No words can express how I feel about what has occurred and in no way do I condone or promote this serious issue”.
“As a father, husband, brother and son, I would never promote such a product”
He said that Amazon was his company’s main distribution channel and since the scandal broke, sales has dropped from 300-1700 orders per day to as low as three in a single day.
“It’s devastating. The majority of our sales stopped”, Fowler told the paper, adding that he may have to shut down the company. “The only real sales channel we currently have is our own website”.
He claimed that he had never intend to create offensive T-shirts, but he took responsibility for producing the computer script which harnessed online dictionaries and other resources to generate the slogans.
He also says that the computer program had also produced other offensive word combinations such as “Keep Calm and Dance Off” or “Dream On”. It also threw up phrases such “Knife Her”, “Choke Her” and “Grope On”.
“I am extremely sorry for the trouble this careless has caused”, expressed Fowler.
Solid Gold Bomb was founded in Melbourne in 2008, but then moved its headquarter to London. It is now based in the United States but Fowler remains in Australia.
Source: City Press. Saudi Gazette
