Old Navy is being heavily criticized after selling children's shirts emblazoned with "Young Aspiring Artist," with the word "artist" crossed out and replaced with different career suggestions.
The shirts, which are aimed at toddlers, substitute jobs like "astronaut" and "president" as alternatives to "artist," according to Yahoo! News.
The international retailer attracted attention after Twitter users posts photos of the offending product, with many users criticizing the slogans for demeaning art as a career choice, according to Forbes.
Many critics mocked the fact that as a fashion brand, Old Navy is a large employer of artists, with one person tweeting that "I guess #OldNavy forgot that artists design their clothes, stores, websites, and entire brand. #oops."
A spokesperson for Old Navy, Debbie Felix, said that it would "never intentionally offend anyone, and we are sorry if that has been the case," according to Tech Insider.
"Our toddler tees come in a variety of designs including tees that feature ballerinas, unicorns, trucks and dinosaurs and include phrases like 'Free Spirit.' They are meant to appeal to a wide range of aspirations," she said.
Felix also stated that the shirts would be discontinued as a result of customer feedback and have since been removed from the store's website, according to The Daily Mail.
Parodies of the offending shirt quickly appeared online featuring phrases such as "Young Aspiring Old Navy Employee" crossed out to read "Young Aspiring Artist," according to Forbes. Other retailers were quick to take advantage of Old Navy's mistake and release shirts of their own with the opposite message.
This is not the first time that Old Navy has come under attack for its questionable clothing for children. Just last year it was criticized for selling "boyfriend jeans" for toddlers, creating a backlash about whether that was an inappropriate message for such young girls, according to New York Daily News.
