What OCD is and why it’s no laughing matter would seem to be common knowledge by now. But a recent Christmas themed clothing line at Target has perhaps proven otherwise. The supermarket chain has recently come under fire from both upset customers and mental health organizations after releasing a special Christmas sweater with a questionable message printed on it.
The retailer offers the product, a Christmas sweater sporting the message “OCD – Obsessive Christmas Disorder”, in three colors, red, white and green, as part of a so-called Ugly Christmas Sweater Collection, meant to make fun of the Christmas tradition which involves wearing flashy holiday-themed sweaters when celebrating Christmas.
Target’s play on words is based on the assumption that most of their customers know OCD usually stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and pokes fun at the chaos that comes with every holiday season through the Obsessive Christmas Disorder pun written on the sweater beneath the acronym (OCD). But not everybody is laughing at the retailer’s joke.
While many customers know what OCD actually stands for, the retailer has maybe ignored or forgotten the fact that some of these customers might also know what Obsessive Compulsive Disorder feels like and what it’s like coping and living with what is actually a serious mental disorder. Customers that know what OCD really means have demanded that Target remove the potentially offensive sweater from its shelves as well as from its online stores.
The issue became well known on social media, with several customers sending messages via Twitter to Target and asking the company to remove the sweater from its stores. But while the public outcry on the issue has been massive enough to cause Target to respond, it doesn’t seem to be enough to convince the company to remove the product from the shelves.
Target has issued a statement saying that the company never wants to disappoint its guests and that it apologizes for any discomfort caused to their customers by the sweater. But it went on to say that it has no plans to remove the sweater from its stores at the present moment.
Obsessive Compulsive disorder is no laughing matter for many of the people suffering from it, as it can cause severe anxiety and affects how people afflicted with it live their lives, as it involves obsessions and compulsions that get in the way of performing daily activities. While some people affected by the disorder have tweeted that they are not bothered by the sweater, many customers have found the product to be, if not offensive, insensitive at least.
Image source: www.wikimedia.org