The daughter of a 9/11 victim slammed online marketplace Etsy after she saw a targeted T-shirt ad showing comic cat Garfield flying head-first into two towers made of lasagna — a shocking reference to the terrorist attack on New York City more than two decades ago.
Amy Stabile — whose father, Herman Broghammer, died during the 2001 tragedy — had been scrolling through Facebook when she came across the tasteless ad featuring a plane-shaped Garfield, which sold T-shirts bearing the design, she told Fox 5 New York.
The shirt shows the famed orange tabby with his paws spread like wings as he careens into the two upright pans of lasagna — with the caption, “9/11? Yea! I’ll take 911 … orders of lasagna!”
“I just couldn’t believe my eyes,” Stabile told Fox 5. “When I saw Garfield — I didn’t even understand how it goes together.
“There are so many things you could put on a T-shirt,” she continued. “Why this? You feel so crushed that someone, anyone, could think that the loss of these lives is funny.”
The five-star seller marketing the garments — NellisNestStore of Australia — describes itself as a place that sells “Silly Merch for Silly Dudes.”
But apparently, it realized the shirts weren’t all that silly — they’d been pulled off the website as of Saturday, according to People.
Etsy’s own policies bar items that promote, support or glorify hatred and violence.
Etsy didn’t respond to the magazine’s request for comment, but a spokesperson told Fox 5 that the marketplace will make sure the T-shirts don’t end up in ads.
However, it won’t demand their removal since humor is subjective, the rep added.
But it still stings for Stabile, who says the selling platform should have stricter content policies.
“Maybe it’s time to start creating policies where this goes against your company policies. You’re making money [off] terrorism. Where are these companies? Stand up for the families of 9/11 and do something about this,” she said.
“At some point you want to say, ‘Have some humanity and think about how you’re making your money.”
Broghammer, 58, who worked in insurance, had been attending a meeting on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center’s south tower when he died during the terror attack, according to his obituary.
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