Kylee McIntyre · · 3 min readRacist shirts, Twitter beef, and how not to handle a PR crisis
A little before noon yesterday, Buzzfeed India senior editor Nirali Shah took a screenshot of a Facebook ad for Paintcollar, a site where artists can upload their designs and get them printed on various merchandise, and posted it on Twitter. The subject of the ad was the T-shirt shown below.
I don’t know who has told South Asian boys they’re allowed to use this word? You’re brown, settle down. pic.twitter.com/iHtT4NjbxV
— Nirali Shah (@nirali_ss) September 29, 2016
The shirt was designed by Being Indian, a YouTube channel that also makes merchandise. It is a play on words from Hindi song “Dum Dum Deega Deega Mausam” and is inspired by a comedy sketch put on by the channel.
The same shirt is also for sale on Being Indian’s site and other locations.
In response, Paintcollar posted a poem thanking her for the publicity.
Out of the mouths of babes, apparently.
It also tagged Being Indian’s Sahil Khattar.
Tech in Asia has reached out to Being Indian and will update upon a reply.
Paintcollar’s response was later taken down. In a call, Paintcollar co-founder and CEO Amogh Vaishampayan claimed that the response was originally sent out by a social media intern.
Check yourself before you wreck yourself
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