From simple grammar errors to unwitting gang symbols to urging people to repeatedly commit violent crimes, it’s alarming how many mistakes are printed on T-shirts.
The errors run the gamut from silly to downright offensive, but they’re all damaging in some way -- and they all could have been avoided.
We previously looked at a T-shirt imprinted with what
looked too much like a gang symbol and why
the best team in baseball isn't the best team in spelling. Now we're onto ...
Keep calm, commit felonies
Solid Gold Bomb set a solid gold standard for T-shirt blunders.
It used an algorithm that automatically generated hundreds of slogans for T-shirts, based on the British slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On.” The T-shirts were then automatically made available for sale on amazon.com. When someone wanted one, Solid Gold Bomb would have the physical T-shirt made and send it to the consumer.
The sweeping automation of creative operations combined with an on-demand purchasing system that eliminated overproduction was a recipe for a return-on-investment bonanza. But then the algorithm began spitting out slogans that started with "Keep calm and" but ended with suggestions so brazen and atrocious that they're hard to mention. They were all made available on Amazon in a massive quality-control failure.
The backlash, which included death threats, was enough for Amazon to block the apparel maker. Orders dropped from 400 per day to 100 per day, the CEO had to fire employees and eliminate his salary, and the whole operation was in such financial distress that shipping complications put Solid Gold Bomb out of business for good in June.
Software and automation create "exceptional efficiencies and amazing results if the process is right and the software is used right,” said Eric Alessi, president of Essent, a maker of business management software for the promotional products industry.
Solid Gold Bomb blamed the failure on technology. But Alessi called it a process failure.
"Effective business processes used with effective software is a powerful combination. Focus on your process then focus on software that automates the process,” Alessi said.
"Solid Gold Bomb relied on technology to make money. It should have relied on technology to implement a sound money making process," added Ron Cahill, Executive VP of Essent.
The Essent web-based Visual Product Configurator allows end-users to create their own T-shirts and built-in workflow that assures designs are reviewed by humans before the product is released to the public -- a feature Solid Gold Bomb apparently didn't have.
"Product mistakes happen, but you need to put controls in place to prevent them from becoming atrocities," Eric Alessi said. "Our visual product configurator has quality control features built-in to stop abominations like these from ever reaching the market."