Guardian News and Media/London
Tesco has become the second retailer to apologise for selling a fancy dress costume billed as relating to mental health issues, saying it is “really sorry for any offence caused”.
The supermarket giant withdrew the bright orange adult costume called “Psycho Ward” from its website after a flurry of consumer complaints.
The costume had the word “Committed” printed on its back and the website description said: “Dress up as the most thrilling psycho killer character of all time in this Psycho Ward costume, consisting of a bright orange, long-sleeved boiler suit with zip fastener to front, ‘Psycho Ward’ printed on the chest. The same words (are) printed on the back in larger letters with a prominent ‘Committed’ stamp just below.”
Tesco said in a statement: “We are really sorry for any offence this has caused and we are removing this product from sale.”
Asda was forced to apologise overnight after it advertised a fancy dress outfit featuring someone covered in blood and brandishing a machete as a “mental patient fancy dress costume”.
The Halloween costume, which is designed to look like a blood-splattered straitjacket with ragged edges, was on sale for £20 through the supermarket’s clothing arm George. Consumers and celebrities took to Twitter to express their disgust at the description, including former footballer Stan Collymore who has fought a well-documented battle with depression.
He tweeted: “Dear ASDA, nice stereotype of ‘Mental patients’.” He went on: “Do you actually realise how many people are hanging themselves because of being frightened of the stigma? Wording is CLEAR. MENTAL PATIENT.” Asda apologised for the incident in a series of tweets and said it would be making a donation to mental health charity Mind.
In a statement the company said: “We are deeply sorry one of our fancy dress costumes has upset people. This was an unacceptable error the product was withdrawn immediately. “We would like to offer our sincere apologies for the offence it has caused and will be making a sizeable donation to MindCharity. We removed the product from our website.”
Former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, who has suffered from depression, wrote on Twitter: “two down one to go. @asda and @tesco withdrawing mental patient costumes @amazon over to you . timetochange pls RT”.
The Guardian also found other examples of mental patient costumes for sale online, including one made by Smiffys, advertised online on the Jokers’ Masquerade website for £24.49 and described as “Our creepy Women’s Mental Patient Costume - the perfect choice for Halloween - even comes complete with a stuffed doll!”
Mental health groups condemned the retailers’ decisions to stock the items in the first place, calling them insensitive and in poor taste given the scale of mental health problems in the UK.
Sue Baker, campaigner for mental health charity Mind, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Stigma and discrimination is unfortunately still really damaging in England today, and this kind of myth of the dangerousness posed by people that you should be scared of anyone who has used mental health services is really damaging.”
