Is Dov Charney working for Urban Outfitters now?

In its endless quest to seem edgy, Urban Outfitters has gone too far once more. The store offered a one-of-a-kind Kent State University sweatshirt splattered with red coloring for $129. The tactless garment is a clear reference to the 1970 killing of four students protesting the Vietnam War by the Army National Guard at the Ohio school. As of early this morning, the Urban Outfitters website said the item was sold out.

I’m normally loathe to devote column inches to stupid, classless, and insensitive corporate behavior- particularly when it comes to Urban Outfitters. Sometimes things are so far beyond the pale that…well, words fail me. Perhaps they thought that, since the Kent State Massacre occurred in 1970, kids wouldn’t get the reference…and perhaps they didn’t. The adults certainly did, though.

To refer to the sweatshirt as an obscenity and disrespectful to the Kent State community (full disclosure: I have two friends who are Kent State graduates) would be an understatement. The fact that so much attention is being devoted to this travesty can be taken as proof that outrageousness can be good for business. Urban Outfitters has traveled this path previously…and frequently. In the past, they’ve sold clothing referencing the Holocaust, anorexia, addiction and racial stereotypes.

Stay classy, eh?

“We take great offense to a company using our pain for their publicity and profit,” read a Kent State University statement posted on Monday. “This item is beyond poor taste and trivializes a loss of life that still hurts the Kent State community today.”

Then again, if you’re trying to differentiate yourself in a crowded and increasingly competitive marketplace…well, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, eh?

It would be nice to think that Urban Outfitters could develop a business model that didn’t require occasionally (and gratuitously) pissing off segments of the population, but who needs an advertising budget when you’re all over the Internet…even if it’s for all the wrong reasons? Sure, it’s all about the outrage generated by the sweatshirt…but you have to know that there are people out there just sick and classless enough to buy and wear it, right? Even at $129, which seems obscene before even considering the design.

The pity is that the sickos too often seem to be Urban Outfitters’ target demographic.