‘Bad’ T-Shirts Featuring Brawl Rile Koreans; NBC Apologizes
NBC, already criticized by Koreans for covering last week’s brawl at the Olympic boxing stadium, today apologized for a T-shirt design making fun of the incident.
Production members of the network ordered 50 T-shirts with the NBC peacock logo and the words “We’re Boxing, We’re Bad” on the front.
The back was to feature the South Korean flag and two boxers over the slogan “Chaos Tour ‘88, XXIVth Olympiad.”
A shop owner refused to make up the order and chided the NBC staffers for trying to make South Korea appear responsible for the incident, the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper reported.
The newspaper reported the incident today under the headline “America’s NBC Orders T-Shirts Insulting to Korea” and carried pictures of the T-shirt designs.
NBC Sports President Arthur Watson said in a statement that the network did not intend to offend South Korea or South Koreans.
“It is (American-style) humor that Koreans don’t have a grasp of,” said NBC spokesman Ed Markee. “ ‘Bad’ is actually black urban American slang for ‘good.’ The local press found that (explanation) hard to swallow.”
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