What's Wrong With This Picture?

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.