It was the t-shirt that became a laughingstock last weekend: Victoria Secret's "Michigan State bling scoopneck tee" featuring lyrics from Michigan's famous fight song, with "Hail to the Victors" printed below "Spartans."
After CNBC's Darren Rovell pointed out the error on Twitter, feedback to Victoria's Secret was apparently so swift and furious that the retailer quickly took the shirt off its site. Anyone clicking on a link for the shirt was bumped to the website's front page. By the time the blogosphere picked the story up, we only had photos and prior Tweets as reference.
The company which designed the shirt, Limited Brands, is based in Columbus, Ohio. That location prompted someone from Ohio State's College of Business to joke that the mistake may not have been intentional.
However, a source "close to" Victoria's Secret told the Columbus Dispatch that the "Victors" MSU shirt was never actually for sale. (The company itself would not officially comment. But the source has to be from inside, right?) The photo of the shirt that was on the website was apparently from a "one of a kind" sample that was never mass produced or sent to stores.
But what if no one had noticed the shirt until after Black Friday? Would shirts have been printed up for orders then? I think those shirts are really on their way to undeveloped countries, like those "championship" tees for teams that ended up losing the Super Bowl and World Series.
(Hat tip, @darrenrovell)