Say What? French Tag Slams President, Company Says It Had No Idea

NBC 5 Chicago ^ | April 7, 2004 | NBC 5 Chicago

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

CHICAGO -- A hidden message that appears to be slamming President George W. Bush has been discovered in a very strange place.

A message inside some bags and backpacks takes a dig at an unidentified president -- but you have to know the secret language to understand it.

Those who look closely at washing instructions inside Tom Bihn portable culture bags and backpacks, it reads, "We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We didn't vote for him."

Why hasn't this caused more of an uproar? Because the message is written in French. Company officials claim they had no idea what the tags said because of the language in which it was written, NBC5 reported.

"No I didn't have any idea and I wouldn't because I am not in the manufacturing side of things," said Sungra Rose, a spokeswoman for the company. "Now, I just look at it and say, 'OK, there is the logo and made in Port Angeles and all of that, so I really never read through it."

The company says it has a few hundred tags left to use up, and then they will have them re-designed.

The Tom Bihn Web site claims the message was "an inside joke among seamstresses and staff" at the company's factory, and that it was "intended to poke fun at company's founder and president."

Tom Bihn, the President of Tom Bihn, Inc., issued the following statement:

"I am terribly sorry that this inside joke has been misconstrued to be a slur on any other president. The joke is on me, and I think it's funny."

[syriacus]

http://www.tombihn.com/page/001/CTGY/NEWS

PORT ANGELES, WA: [snip]

Because Tom Bihn products are sold into Canada, the care instructions are in English and French. It was discovered this week that the French translation continues after the washing instructions to read: "NOUS SOMMES DESOLES QUE NOTRE PRESIDENT SOIT UN IDIOT. NOUS N'AVONS PAS VOTE POUR LUI." Translated, the message reads, "'We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We didn't vote for him.'"

Apparently, the message began as an inside joke among seamstresses and staff at the Tom Bihn factory, intended to poke fun at company's founder and president, Tom Bihn, who recently incorporated the company and was elected its president.

[cinFLA]

On their website!

Idea: call the White House - 202 456 1111

Links: Howard Dean for America!

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

Also from the Tom Bihn web site:

One of the Tom Bihn staffers,

Darcy Hudgens: Revolutionary

Darcy designs and writes the content of many of the pages you see, such as Tom Bihn Bags Travel the World, News & Events, our Site Map and our product pages. She also does the marketing for the Web site and company, responds to customer emails, answers the phones, and watches over our forums.

Listening to at work: godspeed you black emperor!, Os Mutantes, The Pianist Soundtrack, Apparat Organ Quartet, Talking Heads, The Dirty Three, Sigur Ros, The Zombies, Portishead, Radiohead, Elliott Smith, Kronos Quartet, Serge Gainsbourg, P.J. Harvey, Wire, Richard Thompson, Outkast, and BBC World Service Radio.

Bear

Links: Howard Dean for America!

Pasado's Safe Haven

DailyKos

Slate

Email Darcy, darcy@tombihn.com

[cinFLA]

The head of quality control of the company should be fired. That's his/her job.

Why? They did their job in promoting their liberal agenda.

[Ditto]

Tom Bihn portable culture bags and backpacks...

What the hell is a portable culture bag? Sounds like something the health department should be using.

[Dan from Michigan]

We (something) that our president (something) an idiot. We (something) not vote for him.

My French is lousy(two years in high school), but even I could figure out part of the label. Enough to guess the rest.

[Aeronaut]

This humor from the country that thinks Jerry Lewis is a comic God.

This humor from the country that thinks Jerry Lewis is a comic god.

Minor correction.

[syriacus]

There is a mostly Bush-bashing discussion of the Tom Bihn tag, which began March 25th, at http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:WkgWStAUcd0J:atbash.net/blog/archives/000046.html+%22tom+bihn%22+fisk&hl=en&start=2&ie=UTF-8

The page has been pulled, but you can still see it in google's cache.

It's obvious that the Blogger and the posters think the tag refers to Bush

[Dan from Michigan]

BTW - What a great setup for free press. It wouldn't suprise me if Tom Bihn was in on it himself. He'll say it's himself to not offend conservatives.

As for Port Angeles, it is a Callam County, which is large and mostly rural. I'm not sure if it is city vs the rest of the county, or if it is marginal the whole way.

Voters - 31456
Bush 15938 - 51%
Gore 13463 - 43%
Nader 1554 - 5%
Right Wing 3rd parties - 501 - 2%

[mabelkitty]

Yes, who will be elected President of the company next year?
Aren't their Federal labeling laws.....

[wtc911]

Made in USA....sold in France...whaddya think?

[pogo101]

Per BetterWhois.com:

Bihn, Tom (TOMBIHN2-DOM)
TOM BIHN INCORPORATED
108 West First Street
Port Angeles, WA 98362
US

Domain Name: TOMBIHN.COM

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Bihn, Tom (BBIMJQYVWI) sunga@tombihn.com
TOM BIHN INCORPORATED
108 West First Street
Port Angeles, WA 98362
US
360-565-0143 fax: (360) 565-0496

Please do not use information irresponsibly.

[kenth]

"I am terribly sorry that this inside joke has been misconstrued to be a slur on any other president."

In fine leftist form, he cannot even bring himself to bear responsibility. Once again, we are the ones who erred and have "taken it out of context." It's such a shame that we right-wingers are not capable of understanding at the same level of the left.

[mabelkitty]

We should add this company to the French boycott ban "just because".

[syriacus]

In fine leftist form, he cannot even bring himself to bear responsibility.

A poster over at the blog agrees with you...she wrote

Seems to me the company which makes the bag are being cowardly. If they really feel that way, why not put it in English, too? And if they don't feel that way, they're pandering. Very typical of the left.

Do we know if Tom Bihn makes a bag with a yellow stripe, to wear on his back?

[Ditto]

Do a search on Darcy Hudgens. You'll see that she is a member of the local Democrat committee, (and uses her work e-mail as her contact point).

They are full of crap with their explanation.

[myself6]

Check out their web site in the "about us" section. This was no "mistake".

[syriacus]

Sunga and Tom

[syriacus]

http://www.tombihn.com/page/001/CTGY/_FAQ

Tom's father was an airline pilot and Tom was feeling a little sentimental when he was designing the new logo. The artwork is based on a 1930s era luggage label; it features a Farnham airplane, which is either French or Belgian. You'll see the new logo on more and more products as it is phased in.

[myself6]

Hey guys!

Looks like they have a FORUM on their web site. ;^>