This put the “swear” in “sportswear.”
Walmart has removed a certain T-shirt from its stores after a customer noticed that the makers had accidentally emblazoned it with a very rude word.
The unintentionally controversial couture came to light via a tweet that has amassed over 2.5 million views.
“I need this shirt before Walmart realizes what they have done. Find the hidden word,” quipped the poster along with a pic of the problematic green garment in question.
At a glance, the T-shirt seems rather innocuous: It sports a typical pro-recycling slogan with the letters “RE” in upper case, followed by the four lower-case suffixes “cycle,” “use,” “new” and “think.”
However, upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that the first letters of each word inadvertently spell the word “c–t.”
Walmart was quick to scrap the accidentally profane shirt from shelves.
“This was not intentional, and the T-shirt has been removed,” a spokesperson for the retail giant told Newsweek.
The T-shirt, which was created by the Walmart-owned George fashion brand, had reportedly only been available in Canadian outlets, where it was on sale for $5.
While the eco-conscious couture may have been banned from brick and mortar, it is reportedly sold on Amazon and elsewhere for around $20.
The sophomoric social media masses had a field day with the incognito C-word.
“Finally. The perfect shirt,” guffawed one viewer, while another wrote, “Laughed out loud when I spotted the hidden word. Now I want that tee shirt too. ;).”
“So THIS is why C U Next Tuesday was trending,” marveled another, referencing another acronym for the same dirty word.
Some social media conspiracy theorists thought the T-shirt slogan was deliberate, like a subliminal swear word.
“What’s the over/under that whoever designed that shirt knew exactly what they were doing?” wondered one.
This isn’t the first time Walmart has yanked clothing for featuring an offensive phrase.
In 2017, the budget retailer removed a controversial T-shirt urging violence against journalists from its website after a news association asked for it to be pulled amid “today’s vitriolic political and ideological environment,” according to a report.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
