Abercrombie & Fitch pulls Taylor Swift shirt after backlash from irate Swifties

Abercrombie & Fitch pulls Taylor Swift shirt after backlash from irate Swifties

Did Abercrombie & Fitch make the right decision?

Abercrombie & Fitch has pulled a controversial Taylor Swift t-shirt after backlash from the singer’s irate fans, BuzzFeed reports. The t-shirt read “# more boyfriends than t.s.,” a reference to the country star’s numerous relationships over the last  few years. Swift’s fans, also known as “Swifties,” didn’t find the shirt that funny and used their collective power to force the retailer to discontinue the t-shirt.

As soon as the t-shirt went public, Swifties sprang into action and created a petition on Change.org requesting that Abercrombie & Fitch pull the shirt from their shelves. “Because it’s hurtful to Taylor Swift and Swifties everywhere!” wrote petition creator Emma Worley.

“This is ridiculous that Abercrombie and Fitch would stoop this low to get attention. Never will shop here again. Their brand is not worth its hype. The nerve,” wrote one fan in the petition’s comments section. As of Friday evening, the petition had gathered more than 200 supporters.

Another Swiftie, named Chelsea Nicole, put together a YouTube video about the controversial shirt. “We all know that ‘T.S.’ is Taylor Swift,” Nicole said in the video. She also asked fellow Swifties to call Abercrombie & Fitch’s public relations line to give them an earful about the t-shirt.

According to the New York Daily News, a recorded message on the public relations line now says, “Thank you for calling Abercrombie & Fitch public relations. If you are calling regarding the Taylor Swift t-shirt, please note this is no longer available.”

Abercrombie & Fitch has experienced a number of public relations disasters in recent years, including CEO Mike Jeffries remark to Salon in a 2006 interview that his company is primarily interested in the “attractive all-American kid.” He also said that “A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

Did you find this to be an offensive t-shirt? Did Abercrombie & Fitch make the right decision? Will the retailer be more tactful in the future? If the t-shirt had referenced Justin Bieber instead of Swift, would “Bieber Believers” have taken the same course of action? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

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