Earlier this week, I went to Wal-Mart. I was browsing through the DVD racks and I came across a DVD. It grabbed my attention because of the cyan colour taking up the whole cover with a simple logo in the middle. Then I took a closer look. I was taken off guard by what I just had read. I had to read at least a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things. Apparently I wasn't seeing things. Here's the picture. If you don't see it, take a closer look and you will see something that is considered offensive among the deaf and hard of hearing population in North America.
Do you see it?
“I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes”
Yes, I do think it’s an offensive phrase. However, the quote above is an excerpt taken from the novel, ‘Catcher in the Rye’’ according to Wikipedia. I’m not sure what that has to do with the story of ‘The Laughing Man’. The impression I got was that the person hired to design the logo just tossed that in for the fun of it. It’s said that the character has a fascination with the novel, ‘Catcher in the Rye’.
I’m still not sure why they had to use the particular phrase for the logo. Most people who see that cover will certainly not think of ‘Catcher in the Rye’. That certainly didn’t come to my mind when I saw the cover.
Then I dug a little deeper; the packaging design was originally from Japan. Then Anchor Bay Entertainment/Starz acquired ‘The Laughing Man’ for DVD distribution across North America. In the process, all they did was replacing the summary and added their logos on the back of the DVD cover and removed the Japanese text from the front cover. That’s all they did.
The people at Anchor Bay Entertainment need to be aware of how we perceive the logo. It is highly likely most deaf people will find the phrase to be offensive. You don’t see people putting down phrases like “I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those retards” onto DVD covers. Out of all the cover designs, did they really have to go with this one?
By the way, here’s the e-mail in case you want to let the people at Anchor Bay/Starz know how you feel about the cover. The e-mail will be sent directly to the Anime section. They are the people responsible for all of the Anime movies distributed by Anchor Bay/Starz.
It may not be that big of a deal but I just think it’s in bad taste and it’s not remotely funny. Especially when children can read these DVD covers. These types of phrases are a bad influence on children these days. It’s bad enough that we have children swearing to the teachers these days.
Maybe the people at Anchor Bay/Starz will hear us and realize that they made a mistake by printing that particular cover.
Or not.
A Clarification: I want people to know that I am not offended by the fact that Anchor Bay printed this. I know it is not intended to offend anyone. What I'm saying is that making a good first impression is crucial in order to sell a product. Truth is, this particular product is intended for a small number of consumers. Had it been a major blockbuster, you would hear more about it. Some readers misunderstood my true intentions of writing this particular blog entry months ago. I can see why and I would like to apologize for that. I should had been clear from the beginning that it is about making a good first impression.
Rush Limbaugh is a radio celebrity who continues to be heard by millions everyday in the USA and America. Recently, he bragged about blackmailing a journalist into cleaning up an article, which "mischaracterizes" him. How did he blackmail him?
By making a threat toward the journalist's children. That is crossing the line; people shouldn't be dragging any family members, friends and especially their children into this sort of situation.
Here's an excerpt from his radio show,I've had journalists tell me this. "Well, we're journalists." Why are you immune? Why are you immune to the same kind of destructive reporting and behavior that you dish out? You know, we have practiced -- I've practiced it once. I am not going to tell you the story because I'm don't want to give it away, and I would have to mention names, and I'm not going to mention names. But there was a cover story on me coming out of one of the big news magazines, and it was going to totally mischaracterize me and what I do and how I do it. And we found out who was writing it and made a couple phone calls to the person writing it. And we said, "You know what? We're going to find out where your kids go to school. We're going to find out who you knocked up in high school. We're going to find out what drugs you used. We're going to find out where you go to drink and do -- we're gonna find out how you paid for your house. We're going to do -- and we're going to do exact -- and we're going to say that, you know what? You are no different than Al Goldstein. You both masturbate. You're no different than Al Goldstein, and you're both journalists, and so forth."
And the guy started screaming on the phone, just went -- "You can't do that." We said, "Watch us." And it changed the tone of the story by about 60 percent, I would say, from what it was going to be. But nobody does that to these people. Nobody does it to them. And that would be so much fun. But I'd need to be wearing body armor every day. Oh, no question, these people are playing for keeps.
Source: Limbaugh says he told journalist writing on story on him: "We're going to find out where your kids go to school" - Media Matters
There's even an audio clip on the website. Now, how can anyone defend this man? If the article truly did mischaracterize him then why did he resort to such a scare tactic? Hardly mischaracterizing because that's who he is.
How would you like it if I told you that I would be able to find out where your kids go to school? How about I find your medical records and post it here? People wouldn’t like it and they would feel threatened if I did that to them. It’s a classic form of blackmailing and shouldn’t be tolerated. It’s wrong. Period.
Anybody who defends him is condoning his actions. It's a pity that millions of sheep are still listening to him even to this day.
