A Jewish party complained, so the American supermarket chain Kmart removed a colorful gift from its website.
The joke “ham- mas” was written in bold lettering on the Christmas food-themed handbag.
The American Jewish Association claimed that because of the unexpected resemblance to Hamas, a banned criminal organization in Australia and several other nations, it had “politely suggested” that it be taken off the market.
The owner of the financial chain, Wesfarmers, apologized.
The bag had the words” Merry HAM- MAS” on one side and “printed instructions to keep your ham new for more” printed on the other, according to the now-deleted product page on Kmart’s website.
The American Jewish Association initially brought up the shocking incident on Twitter along with a picture of the bag.
Although this may be humorous ( the AJA committee has tossed around some non-PC jokes ), it’s really not a good look, the group wrote.
” We worry that a product boss might embarrass the business.
Wesfarmers Corporate has been kindly informed that the item should be pulled.
About an hour after, the team posted an update stating that senior management at the parent company of the supermarket had contacted them and assured them the bag would be taken down from their website.
” We obviously did n’t consider all the implications when designing this product, and the product has been taken off the market.”
