Laguna Beach, California’s Thalia Surf Shop scored a perfect viral 10 with their “20% Off all Black items” Martin Luther King, Jr. Day sale featuring the civil rights leader in a wetsuit carrying a surfboard, according to stories on media outlets around the world.
The shop even got a reprimand from the President of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, Earl Ofari Hutchinson.
“This cheap attempt on the part of a business to make money off of Dr. King continues the pattern of disrespect and ignorance of and that far too many businesses and business owners have for the monumental work of Dr. King.” . . Hutchinson demanded the surf shop stop the MLK sale and provide a public apology.
Thalia owner Nick Cocores says he meant no harm by the email, according to KABC.com.
“In no way did we intend to hurt or offend anyone,” Cocores said. “For those that took offense or disrespect, we truly are sorry. We took down the ad for our sale to hopefully calm the waters and in the future will be more careful in our selection of promotions.”
Click here to read Cocores’ apology got so much traffic that they had to remove their entire blog from the website as well. [Our link was wrong. Thanks to a kind commenter for pointing out our assumptive error.]
Leave it to a bunch of peace loving hippies from Laguna Beach to misread the national holiday completely. Follow the jump for the evening news video.
[Link: KABC, OC Register, New York Daily News, Colorlines, and San Jose Mercury News]
“Now, it looks like Cocores’ apology got so much traffic that they had to remove their entire blog from the website as well.”
Nice try with your reporting, almost there, but yeah, the blog is still there and has been the whole time.
“Leave it to a bunch of peace loving hippies from Laguna Beach to misread the national holiday completely.”
Misread the holiday completely? Hmm… well then we should burn them for having a presidents day sale, easter sale, christmas sale, god I could go on all day about this! Way to rip on an innocent ad from a small surf shop guys, you rule and thanks for making the industry better and better everyday!
thalia=billabong
yeah, never expect a bunch of idealistic, spoiled (sorry, no of that proof yet), nare-do-well, removed from life behind the Curtain types to be unaware that that may be a bit off color?
Why buy it for LESS cause it’s black, what is it damaged and not worth as much?
For the Holiday, it should cost MORE to buy anything BLACK and the extra $ can go to some multi-cultural education fund.
Each one teach one.
Why does the black licorice taste the worst?
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