To question the protest over the Sainsburys mug

[LadyLightning]

I work in mental health, have counselled many victims of domestic abuse and worked for agencies providing emergency support to people in danger.

I see the Matilda themed mug at Sainsburys has been withdrawn because it can be apparently be read as 'a brilliant idea. hit her'. Which would obviously be reprehensible.

Did anyone read it that way? I thought it was pretty clear it was meant as as 'a brilliant idea hit her'. Of course we have to take violence in relationships very seriously, but does this seem a bit overblown to anyone else?
YABU - the mug should have been withdrawn
YANBU - the protest is over blown

But... If you see the typeface changes and line breaks as an issue the you should be reading three separate sentences:

A

Briliant idea

HIT HER

But most people seem perfectly able to put the first two lines together, no matter how nonsensical that is... just not the last one!

It is shite typography, but people seem to be picking and choosing how it affects their reading!

So much outrage over something that doesn't actually have any impact on the real issues, just causes people to shrug and walk away! Which is sad given the horrendous rise in DV!

I did read it as "A brilliant idea, hit her" - an instruction. I don't think the mug should have been withdrawn though because people familiar with the book would probably not read it in that manner.

I read it as "a brilliant idea hit her"

Because that's literally what it says, I don't feel moved to invent punctuation to make it mean something different

Sounds rather over the top, unless it was written as "A brilliant idea: hit her," on the cup.

I don't understand this - it's just a mug. Not even a well-designed mug. There are millions of possible mug designs. Why in the world would you keep this one on the shelf once the problem with it had been pointed out?

The only reason I have an opinion on this matter is that I think it's a good idea for domestic violence survivors not to have to see what looks to many people like a pro-violence message in the supermarket.

And I can't wrap my head around someone actually giving a shit, in a negative way, that the mug was withdrawn from sale, how could anyone be so attached to that crap mug design?

I don’t like it at all. I have experienced abuse and I do find it horrible and triggering.

I don’t go into Sainsburys so correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t Sainsburys sell books and magazines some of which will have images and headlines/titles that would surely be more triggering to people who have suffered violence. Some ‘autobiographies’ written by survivors of childhood abuse have pictures of ‘scared’ children On the covers. Surely that is worse? What about all the salacious
I would have misread it if I had seen it but like many others I would have just done a double take and worked out what it Actually meant.

I don’t believe the people who have publicized this genuinely think this would cause upset otherwise why the fuck have they publicized it?
Self interest and self promotion I suspect.

Typo
*what about all the salacious headlines on mags and newspapers?

It's poorly designed so I think it should have been withdrawn.
The most important part of the sentence is 'the brilliant idea' not that it 'hit her' so the change of font and positioning is placing the emphasis on the wrong place - that's why people are reading it as 'a brilliant idea - HIT HER'. Tbh I'm that any designer emphasised the final two words without realising what they were doing.

The fact is, as this thread shows, it's ambiguous. It can be read both ways. And one of those readings is extremely offensive.

Therefore it is - at best - a clumsy and insensitive slogan to put on a piece of twee homeware. They were right to withdraw it and their design team need to be more careful with the wording they specifically choose (presumably after lengthy consideration) for their products. There are a lot of words out there, and a lot of quotes. It's not too hard to pick something that can't legitimately and easily be read as offensive.

If I had seen that in Sainsbury's I would have thought 'oops, you could easily read that the wrong way'. No sense of outrage though. It's not well designed, but there is no deliberate attempt to be ambiguous - just a change of font to make it interesting'. Taking it off sale is a huge overreaction.

Maybe 'World's Best Mum/Dad' mugs should be banned for upsetting people with crap parents.

The word interesting in my pp should have been in inverted commas - I don't think it makes it interesting myself.

I find it bizarre people are perfectly capable of understanding the first part without a comma (between A and brilliant idea) but not the second part.

Surely if you are reading as A brilliant idea, hit her, you should actually be reading as A, brilliant idea, hit her. Which would make no sense at all and would just be random words really.

People are reading the cues in the layout, font and use of bold and italics.
It's fine for lay people to say 'Oh I'd read it all as one sentence' or 'Oh you need to read everything separately then' but that ignores how people are taught to read which is left to right, - which creates a pause for emphasis before HIT HER. They're also ignoring the extensive research that shows how people respond to different font sizes, colours, emphasis, and placement.
No designer or advertiser should misunderstand those concepts. They're integral to their job.

People with triggers related to violence know what to expect on the magazine rack and presumably avoid looking at it. They're not expecting to see HIT HER written in big letters on a mug, and are very unlikely to be prepared for it. It didn't bother me personally beyond a bit of a double-take reaction, but I don't have a past history of abuse - it's that double take thing where you're taken by surprise by an insinuation of violence that could be triggery.

I don't see why it's in any way an issue for Sainsburys withdraw something that has such a high potential to upset people and has basically zero upside. It's a mug!

It's the design that makes the sentence ambiguous so it's for that reason that I'd say remove it. If it was a continuous line in the same font of 'A brilliant idea hit her' then no problem.

@FuckwitMcGee

I'm sick of people who disagree with people complaining, because they think others should subscribe to their viewpoint! Such is life.

The people complaining obviously think others should subscribe to their viewpoint or they wouldn't complain and rant until the others back down and apologise just to keep the peace. It's ok for them to complain but not for anyone to disagree?

I do think it's a strange choice of font and layout - why do it like that?

because it appears to be the fashion at the moment. Plain font, fancy font, plain font. You see it everywhere.