Retailers Are Making a Wartime Killing--in Bad Taste

The model, of course, is beautiful. She has a dazzling smile and long, tapered nails, clear-polished for a natural look. The newspaper ad is full page.

She’s wearing a white T-shirt, made in the U.S.A., emblazoned with the American flag. Underneath are the words that rapper M.C. Hammer has immortalized in song: U can’t touch this!

And then comes this, Desert Storm. The words are written in scroll.

Naturally, they’re wearing the shirts oversized. And remember to roll up the sleeves, it looks much more up to date.

The price is $14, plus tax, in Plaza Sportswear at the Broadway, near you.

This T-shirt sells.

The reason, it seems, is that war these days is rather hip, M.C. Hammer cool.

Parents are buying the T-shirt for their kids. Adults, men and women, are wearing them too. It’s their way of waving the flag, with panache.

Or so it appears now, before the casualties of war really begin extracting their toll.

As the sins of capitalism go, I suppose this one is pretty minor league.

It wasn’t the Broadway, or Robinson’s, or any of the many other retailers offering their own takes on war, that sold American technology to our former good friend, Saddam Hussein. The U.S. government approved each of those sales.

Then there is also a lot of this: “Hey, we’re in a recession. Everybody’s got to make a buck.”

This is usually what the little guys say, albeit not quite so crassly, but it distills to the same.

And, for the record, all of the above is true. This is the land that we live in, for better and for worse.

Still, something about the commercialization of this war leaves me with a queasy feeling. In my book, it is wrong to gentrify war--politically popular or not--and make a profit to boot.

I am not alone. I’ve asked around, among strangers and friends.

Shirley Yuen is a woman I stopped at a mall. She was wearing a large button that said she supports our troops. She bought it for $1, just enough money to cover costs. She bought it from a friend.

“This is personal,” Shirley says. “We all know somebody who is there.”

Shirley says she won’t buy anything from a commercial vendor. It doesn’t seem right.

Among the salespeople in department stores selling such wares, the feeling is much the same. They all talk to me, with feeling, although only after I promise that I won’t use their names.

“I’ve got a cousin dropping bombs over there,” says a young man selling housewares. “I would never buy this stuff. I think it’s in poor taste. Over the weekend, lots of parents were buying stuff for their kids, but it was, like, because it was the ‘in’ thing to do.”

Another young woman, behind the counter where “patriotic accessories” were for sale, says this:

“Other people who work here, they come by and look at all this, and they say that it really rankles them. . . . It bothers me too. And those T-shirts, it’s like they’re concert T-shirts. I don’t think that this is something that should be seen as fun. . . . It’s like it’s a party, like ‘Let’s have fun.’ ”

The customers, however, haven’t said a thing. They’re buying, the saleswoman says.

The large chiffon yellow ribbon barrette, $10, sold out over Presidents’ Day weekend. Others, in red, white and blue with stars, are doing well at $14.

“A lot of people have stopped by and said, ‘Oh, look how cute,’ ” the saleswoman says. Then she points to a rack of bow barrettes, prominently displayed on the countertop. They sell for $14. They are a green-and-khaki camouflage print.

“These,” she says. “These really make me mad.”

In a gift-wrap department, employees are protesting, and supporting American troops, in their own way. There is a box of stick-on yellow ribbons, free for the taking, that the employees have placed there themselves.

“I saw this display here, and I don’t know, I just don’t feel it’s right,” says one employee, who says he has three buddies fighting in the Persian Gulf.

“Writing letters to the troops, that’s great. But then they put that next to it. That is not right.”

The salesman is motioning toward a huge box, painted the colors of Old Glory, with the words Special Delivery Desert Storm . Next to it is a display of pens--plastic in red, white and blue with stars--that sell for $1.99 each. They are of Italian make.

The message is clear: Write to the troops. We’ll mail your letter too. And, please, use one of our pens.

So what am I saying? some of you might ask. That we put capitalism on hold during a war?

No, I am not suggesting that. Gods knows, capitalism unfailingly wins out.

All I’m asking is that you think about it, deep down, and figure out where you draw the line.

War should never be reduced to the trend of the month.

Dianne Klein’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Readers may reach Klein by writing to her at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7406.