Under Armour pulls Iwo Jima-inspired 'Band of Ballers' T-shirt

I agree with Brad on this. It's a bit tasteless, but I'm not offended. If it was guys high up in the air dunking balls on ship below, mimicking pearl harbor; I would be offended.

penn

How does this even get past the idea table? Sports broadcaster and athletes in general should stop referencing or describing games with real-life war themed analogies.

variant2

Not offended since UnderArmor has a history of supporting our military and also designs various patriotic gear. They may not be perfect with all their decisions but the fact they accepted responsibility and apologized lends me to believe that they're on the right track.

twistedstem

As a former service man with a grandfather who was a marine I find it in bad taste. Don't think that image should be used for anything other then what it is!!! But one of the things our military preserves is freedom of speech.so I just wont buy it or promote it

variant2

twistedstem said:

As a former service man with a grandfather who was a marine I find it in bad taste. Don't think that image should be used for anything other then what it is!!! But one of the things our military preserves is freedom of speech.so I just wont buy it or promote it

UnderArmour pulled the shirt so it's not even for sale anymore.

First_Warrior

Comsidering the fact that more than half the Marines in the original photo were killed in action shortly after the photo was taken I find it offensive. Everyone views things through their personal prism. The prism is made of that persons life experiances. Mine,being a Marine grunt who has been in a shooting war has to call something like this offensive. I hope the designers learned something when it was pulled.UnderArmor makes me itch!

0patience

I really had no intention of posting again, but I was seeing things differently on this one, so here goes.
Some things to ponder.

The thing to remember with creativity, is that it is open to interpretation.
While one will see one thing, another will see something entirely different.
I would suspect that a younger person who had no understanding of its meaning may have made that image and had no idea it would create any controversy.
Most kids couldn't tell you what that is from or where it was.

It's interesting that it has caused an uproar. And only because the internet spreads things like wildfire.
If you found it offensive, then here is a list of other "parodies" of that image that you might find offensive.

Were the companies that produced those boycotted or blasted because the images were offensive? No.

We've become a nation so bent on being politically correct, that we will sacrifice any creativity and freedoms because someone might find it offensive.

Those men fought for the rights of people to be creative. To have the freedom to "offend" and to speak our minds.

No, I didn't find it offensive. But then again, as a Native American, I don't find terms like warrior, brave and redman offensive either.

YankeeMan

First Warrior, you opened my eyes. I wasn't offended either, but I did find it in poor taste and I'm glad they pulled it.

I had no freaking idea it had been parodied so much. I don't mind the military themed ones so much, but some of them were in really bad taste. Thanks for being so vigilant. Maybe, I'll be a little more observant from now on.

First_Warrior

I think all the posts on this thread are valid, offensive,poor taste,and nonoffensive. Everyone has their own way of looking at things. Creativity should be encouraged hel-I have been making and selling art for 40 years.
I would like to explain the reason that I found the image offensive. For me it's personal. I have a personal connection to the iconic photograph of the flag raising on MT Suribachi. In 1966 i was at the Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island. One of my drill instructors gathered all us kids together one night and opened his heart to us. Sgt. Rash told us that his father was killed by a Japanese machine gun on Iwo Jima and all he wanted to do while growing up was be a Marine. Sgt Rash became our mentor and surrogate father and the training he gave us helped us survive combat in Vietnam.
Fast forward to 1995. I determined I wanted to create my Vietnam memoir. I had a bunch of letters and photos that i had sent home and used them to make the bones of my manuscript. I thought that I needed to write a narrative to insert between the letters and photos and i started to do some research. I still had my boot camp graduation book that listed everone in my plt. I spent a week looking up the names on the website for the Vietnam Memorial and found seven of the Marines in my plt were killed in action and no telling how many more were wounded as I was. I looked up the drill instructors and found Sgt Rash had been killed in 1969 going to the aid of one of his wounded men.
So connect the dots. Sgt Rash's father killed on Iwo, Sgt Rash who made us Marines was killed in Vietnam. Everytime I see that iconic photo i think of him and how the training that he gave me and others helped keep us alive.
I understand the image and creativity on the shirt on a intellectual level and it doesn't bother me. On a emotional level for me it is entirely different.
Thanks for reading my Memorial Day rant. Semper Fidelis