If you’ve never heard of Paul Maybury, he’s the writer and artist behind the webcomics Party Bear and Maxy J. Millionaire. He also draws cool promo boards for the Whole Foods he works at, or at least he did, until his depiction of Mr. T cutting into a steak apparently pushed Whole Foods buyers over the edge. From his website:
This is the sign that more or less got me pushed out of Wholefoods. I apparently offended a lot of people with it. Once older white lady didn’t like the angry black man yelling at her. And a Vegan didn’t like that Mr. T. pitied her because she wouldn’t eat meat.
That’s a true story.
Now, he didn’t officially get fired for the sign – he later explained on his Tumblr that “what they did with me is they just kind of blocked me from any sort of advances and left me with the option to more or less leave, which I did.” But, that’s pretty much the same thing. And all for a drawing that I think all of us would eagerly frame and put on our living room wall.
Of course, it didn’t help that he apparently offended an Irish costumer with this sign, although I don’t see how anyone can argue that this pork isn’t “Irish Style.”
[Paul Maybury via The Daily What]