Cotton On thinks child abuse is funny: meet Lincoln

Lanai Vasek says:

03:35pm | 14/08/09

Wow, what a great piece.

Is there anything Cotton On won’t do to get attention?

Let’s hope a caring family does put their hand up to take care of little Lincoln. One that hopefully doesn’t find T-Shirts with “They Shake Me’’ on them funny in any shape or form.

As for Cotton On, surely someone at the Advertising Standards Bureau could pick up the phone and put an end to their absolutely shameful campaigns.

Fran Molloy says:

03:48pm | 14/08/09

Great piece Carolyn. Sounds like there’s a market of at least 8000 for a new T-shirt : “Cotton On: They Shit me”  ...  Any CottonON rivals out there want some sales?

SaraK says:

03:49pm | 14/08/09

Sure, it’s offensive - but it’s no different to what many other tshirt retailers (ie: tshirt hell) are doing. It’s South Park / Family Guy - style humour, which isn’t for everyone, so they don’t have to buy it.

If you took every item of clothing at face value, you’d have a lot of outraged tweets to make.

Tim says:

04:00pm | 14/08/09

While your on you banning crusade, why not just ban people from wearing any clothing with a slogan on it?
In fact everyone should be in a uniform so there will never be a chance for anyone to be offended.

Andy says:

04:05pm | 14/08/09

Anyone heard of Voltaire? ‘I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’

Its your right to be offended but its the manufacter’s right to say it.

Bill Steamshovel says:

04:06pm | 14/08/09

Caroline, what’s the issue here? That a clothing company is using black humour to promote their products? Are you trying to imply that Cotton On is encouraging child abuse? Whatever the case, it seems like a fairly soft target.

If you want to talk child abuse, would you care to comment of the figures released from the Department for Child Protection which show biological mothers abusing their children at triple the rate of biological fathers?

Caroline Overington says:

04:11pm | 14/08/09

I’m not much one for censorship myself which doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s repugnant.

Dewgong says:

04:18pm | 14/08/09

Let them sell their tasteless shirts. We will then know which people are not worthy of being perants when we see their children wearing these things.

vortex says:

04:32pm | 14/08/09

and what will you do when you come across these ‘people…not worthy of being perants (sic)’? Will you tell them to their face or just quietly judge and feel superior?

Polgara says:

04:40pm | 14/08/09

An online store was selling these about 10 years ago, for Brighton Mums who liked their “designer babies” in cute funny t-shirts with funny witty slogans on them.
Now they have become mainstream and are cheaper (by about $20), everyone is complaining about them - get a life for goodness sake, who cares!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tt says:

04:43pm | 14/08/09

Andy, Voltaire never said that (look up Evelyn Beatrice Hall). Not only are you misquoting him, most people from SaraK to Bill Steamshovel aren’t acknowledging the responsibility that goes with free speech. We all defend it -  we also all have the right / duty to speak up for those who don’t have a voice. In this case, its:
1. Children who are maimed by parental neglect, with insult added to injury by those who would commercially exploit their misery
2. Toddlers who don’t get to choose their own clothes. If these were t-shirts for teenagers in General Pants, sure, different story. As it is, I already cringe when I see dads who have chosen for their son a “Lock up your daughters” T-shirt - do we really think about it before we make out a 2yo boy to be a pants-man?
In this context, “They shake me” is the two-step - it goes well over one-step too far.
To those who are offended, boycott the shop.
To those who think it’s funny, or that Cotton On shouldn’t be criticised, put your money where your mouth is - buy one for a kid you know.

Dewgong says:

04:51pm | 14/08/09

Quietly judge and feel superior vortex

Caroline Overington says:

05:00pm | 14/08/09

Can you imagine buying one as a gift?

Barbara says:

05:22pm | 14/08/09

Hear, hear, tt.

Barry says:

06:11pm | 14/08/09

So does Caroline Overington write for The Punch now? I thought she had a blog on The Australian. What gives?

Graham Wilson says:

06:35pm | 14/08/09

Geez Caroline, I can’t remember what else of yours I’ve read, but I’ll be sus about your balance in the future.
As for tt, Dewgong, and all the self-righteous anti-libertarians who successfully lobbied Cotton On, your sanctimonious censorship and assumptions about parents who may have bought the shirts is the only real issue here.
Nothing that Cotton On did is remotely as offensive.

davido says:

07:03pm | 14/08/09

Child abuse? WTF? You really need to get some perspective.

I have friends who adopted a child aged 4 working on a building site in India.
That is child abuse.

It is this sort of extremist attitude and overly broad definition o abuse that damages legitimate claims of child abuse.

Marilyn says:

10:01pm | 14/08/09

Perhaps Iraqi and Afghan children can have T-shirts saying “they bombed me”, or the Palestinians “they burnt down my house”.

Don’t you sometimes think we in the west just too precious for words.

Perhaps the 9 million kids who die of hunger every year could be given shirts ‘saying “did the tree fall in the forest because no-one noticed my dying”.

Christine says:

10:06pm | 14/08/09

Well said tt!

I care because it is part of what desensitises people to human suffering. When people stop caring, this won’t be a society worth living in

Chris says:

10:30pm | 14/08/09

“Department for Child Protection which show biological mothers abusing their children at triple the rate of biological fathers.”

The good thing about really shit fathers is they usually just leave.

Rowan M says:

10:50pm | 14/08/09

next thing you know they’ll be shaking their fists at clothing companies that use the cheaper labour in the developing world to cut costs… now THAT’s child abuse on a mass scale

although I can’t see mia jumping at that story for cosmo anytime soon!

Ben says:

02:24am | 15/08/09

So another cause for the complacent bourgeois self righteousness types to flog us all with their terribly earnest outrage.
What an absurdity it is to suggest that all advocates of free speech should maintain a special vigilance on behalf of children who aren’t free to choose their own attire. Children who aren’t free to be clothed at maybe!

All you self righteous crusaders no doubt sit there in comfortably blogging away content that you and dear Caroline are together sharing a carthartic and worthy experience of vanquishing some evil doer when your own values are the ones endangering our way of life.

Did cotton on use Palestinians, Israeli victims of Palestian terrorism, somali, afghan or Iraqui children on the shirts? No they didn’t so why even make that obviously erroneous comparison?

Are we going to have vigilante squads comprising paragons of virtue like Caroline, Dewgong, tt et al roaming the streets randomly determining who is a worthy parent? Who do you think you are?

What’s next Caroline? Do we all roam the streets finding slogans commercial or otherwise that offend us, then hunt down some innocent victim of abuse to illustrate our broader point? Don’t you think we risk crying wolf?

Gloria Kelly says:

11:08am | 15/08/09

Cotton On protesters - get over it!! I support Cotton On for being broad minded enough to sell the T Shirts in the first place. If the T Shirts didn’t sell, they wouldn’t continue to stock them would they? The whole thing about humour is that it makes fun of something or someone, so somebody is bound to be offended. Some people find breast feeding in public offensive. It’s just a T Shirt and personally, I can see the humour in “They Shake Me”.  That doesn’t make me a child abuser or even a supporter of child abuse. The worst I am guilty of is a sick sense of humour. What I DID find offensive, was the air head on the Today show this morning who stated that she didn’t believe in COMPLETE freedom of speech.

maenad_au says:

06:02pm | 15/08/09

Gloria: you’re an enabler which is being indirectly supportive of abusers. You get no sympathy from me. This is not the US and freedom of speech is not guarranteed here and there are reasons for that. If that’s your real passion then go campaign for it.

Ben: of course I judge you and everybody else I come in contact with. Without the ability to judge we wouldn’t survive you ninny. The “judgemental” crap is all about calling girls “mean” for not liking you and then extrapolating it out as far as you can to the laughable point of calling anybody who disagrees with you a Nazi. It’s the oldest point scoring technique on the internet and in pubs frequented by first years the world over.

Bill: you are full of shit and everybody knows it. STFU unless you can link to the data, which I know you can’t because you would if you could.

This is not about freedom of speech. It is not about politics. It is not about male vs female. It is not about foreign wars or labour laws.

It’s about a bad joke delivered badly on a very sensitive subject.

The cultural discourse is this: child abuse has been such a seriously overlooked social problem that any attempt to lighten up the issue is highly offensive to anyone who cares about it. Jokes can be used to normalise a certain point of view, in this case, one that is responsible for an enormous amount of psychological and physical damage and there’s nobody who hasn’t been affected by it at some point. Laughter is a tool for minimalising and denying that effect.

Plus, in a secular society like Australia’s it’s almost inevitable that babies become sacred.

There’s a rising tide here, and childless people who think child abuse has it’s funny side should beware of stepping on this hallowed ground because this rising tide of moral outrage has behind it such force that it will destroy all that it percieves to stand in its way.

Lexi says:

06:19pm | 15/08/09

Trying to trivialise a horrendous crime is not funny in the slightest.  I used to browse at Cotton On, but when I pass by, all I can think of is these foul t-shirts.  What next, adult t-shirts with these kinds of slogans - “I was raped, want a turn?” “My priest is a paedophile” “I won’t pack into a scrum with Hoppa again”.

I think it shows whoever at Cotton On came up with the slogans, and whoever approved them, doesn’t get modern PR.  It is no longer about “any news is good news” - it’s now about protecting your brand… Or in their case, the Yet-To-Cotton-On brand.

Bitten says:

11:24pm | 15/08/09

Ben, I think I love you. A coherent and comprehensive response. Bliss!

nicky says:

03:07am | 16/08/09

I have said from the beginning,what Cotton on is doing is plain SHIT!!!.
They dont seem to understand certain subjects is taboo,Their slogan`s has nothing to do with freedom of speech etc,etc.They just want to make money.Pity the poor soul`s who think it`s funny,if you want to correct certain problems in society dont make fun of it treat it as serious.

Paul says:

11:46am | 16/08/09

nicky do you think you are being clever and “grown up” when you use language like that? You are not. It makes you look a pathetic and simple minded pervert. There is simply no reason for a decent person to use foul language in public or private. Is your vocabulary so limited that you really had no other words to choose from? Or your upbringing so bad that you know no better.
A friend once told me language online is like clothing offline. It is our first and best impression of your character. You, nicky, come dressed in dirty rags, as if you have no self-respect.
If you don’t offer everyone on this thread a humble apology, we will know that you are nothing but the gutter trash you seem.

Dan says:

04:25pm | 16/08/09

nicky, congratulations. you stand against what this company does yet managed to get yourself ‘down’’ to their level. if you dont like the stuff dont buy it. a t shirt, or getting rid of one for this matter, wont build the problem nor eliminate it. oh by the way, in the infamous words of one of the worlds best selling t shirts, shit happens.

Maxie says:

01:28am | 17/08/09

On this same blog, Penbo is rather intelligently arguing Kyle Sandilands should be able to continue his career, despite his trangressions.
Here, Caroline is arguing that Cotton On shouldn’t be able to sell a mildly offensive t shirt.
Clearly there is no consistency of opinion among The Punch bloggers.
If we start banning poorly executed jokes from being published and sold in public (on tshirts, or whatever else), then we will have to ban Rove from TV.
On second thoughts…..

Timbo says:

11:14am | 17/08/09

To me, this just smacks of lazy thinking/marketing - I can see the “Cotton On” marketer sitting at their desk, desperately watching the 5pm deadline looming and saying “stuff it, lets go offensive”. Its the easiest thing in the world to offend a majority, and our society still has a number of generally taboo subjects that are gauranteed to hit a nerve….which is a sad thing about our society that companies feel the need to go to these lengths to get themselves noticed. But business is all about people talking about your brand - and look…it’s worked a treat on this blog alone and from the looks of it, it made Morning tv and best of all, it was free!! I’m betting they dont care if they dont sell one of these particular t-shirts, but I’ll bet traffic on their website has spiked since the news came out.

Personally, I find the shirt offensive, and I would lay some money that 99% of parent’s inital gut reaction to reading that on a child’s t-shirt would think the same. Those people posting here about “freedom of speech”, etc - how many of you are parents? and how many of you would dress your child in such a shirt? Hands up….c’mon…..

Methinks it says more about the parent than the t-shirt company

KNM says:

12:57pm | 17/08/09

I’ve already started boycotting them, and all the Mums that I know I’ll be advising them to boycott Cotton On also. I’ll not be spending a cent from now on in Cotton On Kids, Cotton On - or Cotton On Body. Also, I’ll be boycotting Rubi Shoes as they’re part of the Cotton On Group! I’m not a conservative person, but they have crossed the line with the “Shake” T-Shirt, and the other offensive slogans that this bunch of Cotton On idiots dreamt up. What they have done is totally inappropriate and irresponsible.

PL says:

01:40pm | 17/08/09

Child abuse is not a funny issue. The t shirt obviously shows pretty poor taste and a lack of empathy on the part of the marketing boffin that came up with it.

But KNM, to go on an extreme boycotting campaign just because something does not align with your values is not only incredibly self righteous, it is in itself not a very empathetic act. Consider the employees of Cotton On not responsible for the t shirts design. If a massive boycott campaign went through in response to the slogan of one t shirt, many people could be out of jobs. This could cause tremendous hardship.

These employees may have considered having children while employed and making money, but now need to put their plans on hold because of a poor financial situation. Your wrath has in essence caused hardship for all but the few people it should be directed to - there is a possibility some children that normally may have lived will never experience life due to your act.

Write a letter. Get a petition signed. Don’t buy that particular t shirt. But don’t go out of your way to punish people for what is not a particularly large indiscretion. Sure, its insensitive but no one was harmed in the making of that t shirt. What you’re suggesting is harmful.

Dani says:

03:35pm | 17/08/09

LOL, I work at Cotton On Kids and “They Shake Me” was REDUCED to $5 months before all of your whinges

Jyoti Barry says:

07:20pm | 17/08/09

I find it funny that most of you think that Cotton On came up with the original idea. Search the internet, this slogan has been on shirts for awhile, though someone pointed this out already.

anon says:

10:49am | 18/08/09

If you think these slogans are offensive join the campaign Cotton Off Our Kids on Facebook.

Mary says:

03:45pm | 25/09/09

You people are funny. i work for cotton on kids and all i can say is thanks for the increase in sales! Everybody has been coming in looking for these t-shirts and suits. Our figures are through the roof!

P.s The ‘they shake me’ top came out waaay before everyone started making a fuss over the other tops. Infact the top was already on sale, so i find it really funny that no one had a problem with it before ....hmmm..

sam says:

03:28pm | 19/10/09

people take things way to serious these days.. it is a slogan on a tee shirt… nothing gets taken as a joke anymore.. not that i am saying that child abuse is a joke..

AJ says:

09:59am | 20/10/09

OK the following points:

1) The joke isn’t original, it’s been available via a popular online store specialising in offensive tshirts for some time
2) The concept that cotton on supports child abuse fails the reasonable man test, it’s clearly satire.  Go and rewatch The People vs Larry Flynt.
3) Over-the-top reactions will promote sales, that’s the point of shock/taboo-busting humour.  By whinging about a shirt you don’t like, you help propagate its sale.

I won’t buy one, I doubt many of the commenters would either, but I don’t really want to live in a society that won’t tolerate the existence of these shirts.