Welcome to the Jungle
There’s been a lot of laughter around these parts about our new ownership’s commitment to something it calls the “Urban Explorer.” This is a person, apparently, who needs a Creative Loafing product to navigate the recesses of darkest Charlotte. Some people here think it’s racist; most just think it’s dumb.
Old Navy, apparently, delivers the last laugh to our bosses with its spring line.
P.S. Watch the ad.
February 25th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Hahahahahhaha.
Bring those covers to THIS PAPER. PLEASE.
Creative Loafing is so radioactive, just like their image. Whoa, what a coincidence.
Your reporting is trendsetting, or should I saw radioactively trendsetting…globalization of water cuisine, the changing face of Turner Classic Movies, Bizzaro crimes from ATL police…and that’s just from Atlanta…what shenanigans await us from….Charlotte!
Modifying your DNA since 1998.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Hahahahahahahahaha.
I’m not sure what’s funnier, an idiot taking a potshot at new bosses, or an idiot using Old Navy to take a potshot at new bosses. Either way, have fun being unemployed.
February 26th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Ben Eason, is that you?
February 26th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
These comments are becoming….radioactive!
February 26th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
The comment comes from an Atlanta IP address, where I guess Fletch references are still cutting-edge. ZING! IT’S ON, ATLANTA, IT’S ON!
February 26th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
If I were Ben Eason, Andrew would have been handed his walking papers and this would have been removed. This blog is incredibly unprofessional, and just a little bit sad.
February 26th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Actually, Ben knows I think it’s a dumb name. Even he would admit it doesn’t have the panache of a 23-year-old Chevy Chase joke, though…
February 26th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
In the Atlanta market the term “urban explorer” doesn’t have a racial overtone. If you look at demographic stats from various agencies you will see that Atlanta Creative Loafing has an extremly high penetration among the black community. This is the 3rd year of Urban Explorer and we haven’t had an adverse reaction. As a Black Man myself I can tell you that it doesn’t offend me any way.
The top 5 search results from Google are listed below
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_exploration
http://www.urbanexplorers.net/
http://www.theurbanexplorer.com/
http://www.uer.ca/
http://www.infiltration.org/
February 26th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
An additional thought I want to share is that just because Old Navy used a Black Female doesn’t really mean anything. I did some poking around and found these clothing outlets that have black people featured up front. Does it follow that these establishments only did this to appeal to a black audience only?
http://walmart.richfx.com.edgesuite.net/catalog_Walmart/Feb_Baby_2008/index.aspx
http://www.target.com/b/ref=sc_iw_r_1_1/601-3272343-0156941?node=3692501
http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/intimates.jsp
http://www.limitedtoo.com/netplus-lp/?GCID=S18881×002>kw=%22limited+too%22&gclid=CMCf0uKQ45ECFQJ4Hgodnxw6ZQ
February 26th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Oh snap!
February 27th, 2008 at 1:24 am
Would Andrew mind being fired by the same company responsible for a racebaiting and plain stupid Urban Explorer cover?
Geiger reading is off da roof yo!
February 27th, 2008 at 10:40 am
So what if I’m from Atlanta? You looked up my IP address? My listed email address is “Book Man Atlanta” gumshoe. You saying I can’t read a washington papers website because I’m from another city? I’ve been a CL reader for years, and I enjoy what the other E-papers have to offer, even this one, even yours.
I guess I should no longer read BBC news online, The Onion, Variety, or the New York Times. I should only read local news. Gotcha.
And the Chevy Chase “reference” was entirely unintentional, I assure you. But since you know his work so well I guess you are a big fan.
Ben knows you think it’s a dumb name huh? Does he know you think it’s racist, or that “most” think it’s just dumb? Does he know you are laughing at the idea? That a lot of you are laughing at him?
Your blog is disrespectful, dismissive, and honestly ignorant. And using Old Navy to make fun of your bosses is just childish and sad. Maybe you won’t get fired, but I know in my company this kind of thing would not go without being answered.
Instead of addressing this, you decide to make fun of my post with Chevy Chase.
And yeah, I get it Kimchii, you don’t like the CL logo. It’s not funny.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:57 am
What logo?
February 27th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Hey I’ve rented Caddyshack from Netflix! Can we at least agree on the comic genius of Ted Knight? Or are things too far gone between us?
February 27th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
BringMetheHead:
Andrew might have been talking about me, since i work here and I’m pretty sure I told him a while back that “urban explorer” struck me as racist. It sounds so much like “on safari” and “safari seekers” (from Wynton Marsalis’ 2007 record) and other very googlable terms that have been used for so long to describe white folks venturing out of their comfort zone and into the city to observe black folks in their natural habitat.
what does “urban explorer” mean to you, Bringmethehead? seriously, i would love to hear your answer.
besides, Bringmethehead, our mandate from above is to get traffic to the website. that ain’t easy — look at all the websites you say you frequent. we’re company men, and nothing attracts surfers like throwing “racist” into a post.
you took the race bait, Bringmethehead. thanks for the hit.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Dave, I’d be interested to hear your take on the 2 comments I made. I did them last night, but they had multiiple links so it took awhile for them to ge through the moderation que. They are comments 8 and 9.
February 27th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Murray:
washington city paper serves the Washington, DC, market, not atlanta, so thanks for your perspective.
i can’t respond to your posts, since #8 is based, you say, on demographic stats for alternative papers in atlanta that aren’t available to me and have nothing to do with washington, dc. but, i don’t think any numbers would have changed my first impression of the term “urban explorer” as being synonymous with “on safari,” and #9 is equally applicable, since as far as i know there are no walmart, target, kohl’s or limited too stores in washington, dc. in other words, none of companies you cite. perhaps that’s a coincidence.
but thanks again for your input.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Ok. Your response, in my opionin, is a better approach than the original post which seemed to say that term Urban was a racially charged and dumb idea across all properties. It may be that the term Urban Explorer doesn’t work in the DC market, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work in other markets. The tone and mocking nature of the original post is what was disturbing to me since it doesn’t seem like it was based on an understanding of the Atlanta market.
Here is a link to some demogrpahic sites. The Media Audit numbers track with this but I don’t have a link for those numbers.
http://www.quantcast.com/atlanta.creativeloafing.com/demographics
February 27th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Murray, Dave, thanks both for your perspectives. I’m not convinced the term is racist, but I do think it’s at the very least a lousy way to look at people living in cities. We’re not “explorers,” we live here. And there’s no shaking the imagery of Dr. Livingstone in his safari helmet poking through the dense brush. It’s just not the same as shopping downtown!
The difference between CL’s Urban Explorer and Old Navy’s is that with the former there seems to be no irony involved. Irony in the sense of a presumably poignant gap between what’s said and what’s meant, not irony in the sense of dressing up a guy in a red velvet suit and cane over the headline “Pimp My Life.” That to me is a thousand times more problematic. But hey, we’ve got the guy who OK’d that cover here now. Max, what are your thoughts?
February 28th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I think the nature of the term is vague enough that a whole host of meanings can be ascribed to it, which is both part of the problem and part of the reason it’s been able to stick around for a while in CL’s different cities. It’s come to mean something different in Tampa (there’s a column called Urban Explorer and an annual special issue) than it does in Atlanta and Charlotte, and it may be that what it means in DC doesn’t work for the City Paper. What it means for Old Navy, well, I’m not sure. I also saw it on some flip-flops a while back.
In Sarasota, which is much more a town than a city, the term was even harder to define. It’s a wealthy community with a slew of glossy mags to cover luxury stuff, and the cover you linked to was for an issue where we “explored” the most expensive stuff we could find locally. Though we got a good response to the issue, it’s not a cover I’m particularly proud of. Still, Andrew, it’s a thousand times more problematic than what?