Protest=Publicity at Ricky's ...
Eric Shapiro - posted on New York Press 7/13/2010
In its latest bid to turn a profit by self-righteous liberals to whine about something in a public setting, “anti-war” interest group Code Pink organized a rally against cosmetic and Halloween supply store Ricky’s, located on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. Why? Because the shop has the audacity to sell beauty products manufactured by Ahava, an Israeli company that operates in the contested West Bank.
The rather thin rationale for all this misplaced rage is that carrying the product, composed partially of mud from the Dead Sea, is a de facto endorsement of the “illegal” Israeli occupation. Protesters clad in spa attire reportedly chanted such inanities as: “Hey Ricky, what’s that scent? Smells like an illegal settlement!”
Regardless of how one feels about the West Bank situation, it makes no sense to single out an Israeli company, much less a store that carries its products. U.S. retailers stock products from many countries with appalling human rights records. Made in China, anyone? Ever hear of blood diamonds? And the gasoline in your car quite possibly comes from a place where women aren’t allowed to go to school and infidelity is considered a capital offense.
Anyway, the protest was a resounding success… for Ricky’s and Ahava, that is. “People seem so pissed about this that we’re selling more of this stuff than ever before,” a store manager told The Brooklyn Paper. “We can’t bend over backwards for everyone who’s not happy. If I stop selling this, then what’s next? We take away all our toothpaste because someone doesn’t like that? If they have a problem, these people should go to the source. I’m in retail, not politics.”
The Ricky’s protest of 2010 is only the beginning of Code Pink’s “Stolen Beauty” campaign. Perhaps if they stage enough protests, they’ll call attention to the plight of Palestinians who are being deprived of what the organization calls “natural resources” (mud, specifically) and provoke a boycott of Israeli goods. Or maybe they’ll just give free publicity to Ahava and the stores that carry its products because, despite some occasional displays of sympathy, most New Yorkers don’t really care all that much about Palestinians or Israelis and they’ll buy their damn beauty products wherever they please, thank you very much.
In its latest bid to turn a profit by self-righteous liberals to whine about something in a public setting, “anti-war” interest group Code Pink organized a rally against cosmetic and Halloween supply store Ricky’s, located on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. Why? Because the shop has the audacity to sell beauty products manufactured by Ahava, an Israeli company that operates in the contested West Bank.
The rather thin rationale for all this misplaced rage is that carrying the product, composed partially of mud from the Dead Sea, is a de facto endorsement of the “illegal” Israeli occupation. Protesters clad in spa attire reportedly chanted such inanities as: “Hey Ricky, what’s that scent? Smells like an illegal settlement!”
Regardless of how one feels about the West Bank situation, it makes no sense to single out an Israeli company, much less a store that carries its products. U.S. retailers stock products from many countries with appalling human rights records. Made in China, anyone? Ever hear of blood diamonds? And the gasoline in your car quite possibly comes from a place where women aren’t allowed to go to school and infidelity is considered a capital offense.
Anyway, the protest was a resounding success… for Ricky’s and Ahava, that is. “People seem so pissed about this that we’re selling more of this stuff than ever before,” a store manager told The Brooklyn Paper. “We can’t bend over backwards for everyone who’s not happy. If I stop selling this, then what’s next? We take away all our toothpaste because someone doesn’t like that? If they have a problem, these people should go to the source. I’m in retail, not politics.”
The Ricky’s protest of 2010 is only the beginning of Code Pink’s “Stolen Beauty” campaign. Perhaps if they stage enough protests, they’ll call attention to the plight of Palestinians who are being deprived of what the organization calls “natural resources” (mud, specifically) and provoke a boycott of Israeli goods. Or maybe they’ll just give free publicity to Ahava and the stores that carry its products because, despite some occasional displays of sympathy, most New Yorkers don’t really care all that much about Palestinians or Israelis and they’ll buy their damn beauty products wherever they please, thank you very much.