Tragedy + time = comedy, the old maxim goes. But in this world where the 24-hour news cycle compresses time, we tend to look at tragedies in the not-too-distant past as ancient history, and as such, fair game for comedy. Enter Bad Planning, my pick for what will be this years hot costume, a getup that consists of oil-spattered British Petroleum work overalls with a dead oil-encrusted plastic fish and an oily wrench. Im sure some peoples first reaction to the costume will be disgust how could anyone make light of a fairly recent catastrophic natural disaster, on Halloween no less. But I see the costume as a means for folks to mock BP (the BP logo on the costume appears above the words Bad Planning). Parody is a superb form of criticism, and no company deserves more criticism than BP. Imagine thousands of walking BP protesters fanning out across America on Halloween.
The company thats manufacturing the costume isnt blind to the whole tragedy insensitivity issue. Phil Talio, sales manager of Easter Unlimited/Fun-World Holiday Times Unlimited, the Long Island, NY-based company thats manufacturing the costume, told me in a phone interview that the oil spill is a terrible disaster, but we thought perhaps theres a way we can help. So in addition to providing a way for average people to vent their rage at BP, a portion of costume sales goes to a worthy cause related to the oil spill, Talio said.
The idea for the costume came to the company early this past summer, which is very late, as the company usually plans costumes much further in advance. We went after it pretty quickly and made it happen this year, Talio said. And has describes sales of the costume as unbelievable.
The insanely fast pace of our lives impacts everything. Even Halloween costumes.
Poster Comment:
In these times of economic depression, this seems like an OUTSTANDING favorite.